Taking care of aquatic plants

[NickD]

In my new aquarium I’ve decided it’s going to be planted, and I assume my tank will cycle much better with plants in.
 

i use API co2 for my plants and they flourish well, and i guess once my tank is fully finished I will start the cycling process.

My question is: once I put the plants in the un-cycled tank, should I add API co2 after a couple days or should I do it when my tank is done cycling?

 

also I am using fluval stratum as the substrate. 

[Guppysnail]

These should answer many of your questions. Coop does quite a few more that are extremely helpful. 

 

 

 

 

 

[NickD]

I’ve seen all of this lol

[Lennie]

On 7/3/2023 at 6:08 PM, NickD said:

My question is: once I put the plants in the un-cycled tank, should I add API co2 after a couple days or should I do it when my tank is done cycling?

Basically never to be fair. Unless you wanna fight an algae issue with a chemical.

These are mainly algaecides. People use these to fight algae problems in the tank basically. They don't work as normal co2 injections that plants utilise. I've never used a liquid carbon in any of my planted tanks in my life. I don't like the idea of using it in my tanks basically for this reason: these products are glutaraldehyde and water. And these are the words of a biochemistry professor about it in another forum:

"As far as I am concerned the use of glutaraldehyde in any aquarium is a complete disaster and is not only a hazard for the aquarium, but for the person that has the aquarium in which this chemical is used as well. I am actually surprised that this chemical has not been banned, but it has somehow slipped through the regulations but I am convinced that it will only be months, not even years, before this is banned completely.

Glutaraldehyde chemically consists of 5 carbon atoms as a straight carbon chain with what we in biochemical terms call an aldehyde group on both ends. There is absolutely no difference between these two groups at each end of the molecule with the single aldehyde group in formalin or formaldehyde. We use formaldehyde as a severe preservative of animal tissues and it is highly toxic, just look at wikipedia on this topic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formaldehyde.

Now someone had found that glutaraldehyde and specifically a type that has formed a ring structure and is polymerized, polycycloglutaracetyl, apparently can kill algae but benefit aquatic plant growth and this is now sold in Excel Flourish. In dilute solution in an aquarium polycycloglutaracetyl, will break down to glutaraldehyde in no time. So this stuff is the same as glutaraldehyde and is highly toxic and a health hazard. It is not surprising at all that Henk got hayfever from it because it is highly irritating to inhale this stuff as it is TOXIC, finished and klaar!

You can read all sorts of iffy reports http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/8801-Glutaraldehyde-in-Excel about it, folks dance around the toxicity issue and say that the aldehyde group on formalin and on glutaraldehyde is different, but as a professor of biochemistry I can tell you categorically that this is total and utter nonsense. Aldehydes, be they part of formalin (formaldelyde) or glutaraldehyde are highly toxic and carcinogenic, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutaraldehyde

So not only are you as a person exposed to this chemical if you breathe it in (I see many of you have done this, it is just as dangerous as breathing in formalin fumes) but your plants and your fishes are endangered by this. No where do I see any mention of the analysis of the liver or the kidneys of fishes in aquaria in which excel has been used, but these organs would have been pickled as far as I am concerned, totally destroyed.

Although you will see that it kills algae (algicidal) as mentioned in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutaraldehyde , and they claim it is not toxic, I cannot see the justification for using this chemical in aquaria, and I will defend my opinion against anyone claiming the opposite including the producers of excel. This stuff is hazardous, to the user and the aquarium and should not be used in aquaria under any circumstances whatsoever.

Kind regards,

Dirk Bellstedt"

 

Here is where it is taken from in case you wanna read more about it:

https://tropicalaquarium.co.za/threads/so-who-uses-excel-gluteraldehyde.5411/page-3

 

Edited July 3, 2023 by Lennie

[Cyndi]

On 7/3/2023 at 11:08 AM, NickD said:

In my new aquarium I’ve decided it’s going to be planted, and I assume my tank will cycle much better with plants in.
 

i use API co2 for my plants and they flourish well, and i guess once my tank is fully finished I will start the cycling process.

My question is: once I put the plants in the un-cycled tank, should I add API co2 after a couple days or should I do it when my tank is done cycling?

 

also I am using fluval stratum as the substrate. 

Hi @NickD! As you can see, the use of Liquid Carbon in the aquarium is a hot topic! That being said, I do use AQ CO-OP Easy Carbon as a spot treatment for stubborn algae. I feel like it gives me a good assist when I'm trying to balance a tank that simply will not balance. So in answer to your question, I think you are safe not to dose Liquid  Carbon until you see you have an algae problem. Then, I would fill a syringe and spot dose the problem area with a full days dosage. Just remember that Easy Carbon (or API C02) does nothing to combat long term algae causes - which are: an imbalance of Light, Nutrients, and Carbon Dioxide.

However, this does not negate in any way @Lennie's comments. In fact, there is an interesting discussion in a video on Green Aqua's channel in which one of the famous aquascapers (don't remember who) mentioned a study in which it was found that tanks that were routinely dosed with liquid carbon fared worse over the long term than non -dosed tanks. Balaz was incredulous as they dose liquid carbon with an auto-doser. 

So there ya go. 🙂

Edited July 3, 2023 by Cyndi
Clarity

[NickD]

Well once I started to use API co2 the plants have flourished a lot more 🤷‍♂️

[Cyndi]

On 7/3/2023 at 6:44 PM, NickD said:

Well once I started to use API co2 the plants have flourished a lot more 🤷‍♂️

Great! In this case I'm sure it would be ok to follow your heart and dose whenever you feel like 😊