Inexpensive way to boost CO2?

My tank specs are:
35 gallon tank
Seven or so Anubias nana
1 amazon sword (Slow growth right now)
2 Dwarf saggitaria (very slow growing right now, trying to speed up growth)
None of these plants are very large, Anubias nana seem to be doing the best.
I have seven fish in the tank, technically it should be overloaded a bit but I do frequent water changes.
PH: a little over 7.0 trying to get it back to 7.5. My PH meter got covered with algae and It messed with the color of the indicator.
I got a new 36 watt LED light (used a light calculator) that easily get A bit above 70 PAR to the substrate.
I have a powerhead pushing water from one end to the Fluval 45G waterfall filter on the other end.
It is a 48 inch long tank 1 foot depth and 10-9 inches to substrate.
(Substrate is black and white sand with eco-complete cap, I know its not the most ideal substrate)

Keep in mind, i am not an experienced Aquarist. Im pretty good at keeping fish alive, I pay a lot of attention to their behavior everyday. but planted tanks are very new to me. I got a CO2 drop indicator, just out of curiosity, and It became apparent after a few days that the drop indicator never turns green even at night when CO2 is supposedly building up. It got me thinking, I attached an airhose to the powerhead to increase the surface area and disperse more natural levels of CO2 into the water but I doubt this will actually increase the CO2 levels enough to "reach green" at any point. Are there a few methods for either DIY CO2 systems or just some other inexpensive methods?

CO2 is very unlikely to be the issue with the plants. Light is the primary factor in plant growth, then ensureing there are adequate nutrients (all 17 of them) in balance. Intensity, spectrum primarily, then duration but the latter cannot make up for deficiencies in the former. Do you know the spectrum (Kelvin)? And how long is the tanklight on each day?

Anubias are slow growing, which means less light and nutrients required. Swords and Saggitaria are moderate light and nutrients. Swords thrive in my tanks and I have never added any CO2. Can you post a photo of the entire tank? This will show us the plants and situation.

Re the pH...what fish do you have? And what is the GH? What are you doing to raise the pH (if anything)?

Surface disturbance will drive out CO2 probably more than pull it in. Respiration of fish, plants and some bacteria species produces CO2, but the majority is produced throough the breakdown of organics in the substrate. And this is more than many realize. I can run my tank lighting for 7-8 hours daily before the CO2 begins to deplete enough that algae increases, and that is the only CO2 meter you really need.

I will wait for the info before suggesting whatever.

You don't need to add CO2 to your tank. The Anubias and Sagittaria won't use it and unless you have heaps of light and are loading the tank up with fertiliser, adding CO2 is a complete waste.

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If you want to maximise the CO2 that is in the tank, reduce surface turbulence during the day when the light is on. Then any CO2 being produced in the tank, will stay in the water for longer.

Oh ok, So the powerhead aeration was likely hurting my cause. Should I consider putting the powerhead on a timer with the lights? Will slow moving water increase the CO2 levels in a way that benefits the plants when they are consuming it? Pictures coming soon!

Please be gentle lol, this is not the ideal state of the tank I had in mind. With the new 36 watt 48" LED I put in there an algae bloom started, you can see a lot of BBA and a new green algae has started recently as well. I have reduced the light cycle to 8 hours which seemed to stop the explosive growth of the BBA. Sorry about the flattering poop in the last picture but I wanted to get a close up.

As you can tell, A number of nerite snails love having their way on pretty every surface. The anubias are indeed making many new shoots, and are doing quite well despite being covered in BBA, which I did slow down by adjusting my light cycle. Sadly I ran out of GH and KH tests, I will get more on order. I also did some trimming of old melting/brown leaves recently on my substrate plants. Though I was hesitant to go too crazy and get them killed by taking too much away. There are Flourish Root tabs in the substrate as well right now. Keep in mind the camera is also making the tank look brighter than it actually is. In the visible spectrum anyways. Yes there is also a window in the room, I dont have a dedicated space for fish tanks.

The photos show us more, and the light intensity may be high but more plants can help deal with that. Floating plants are highly advisable. The other benefit of floating plants is that they can assimilate CO2 from the air and this for aquatic plants is four times faster than submerged plants, so that would certainly not be a CO2 issue. And they will use more nutrients, thwarting algae even further.

The BBA on Anubias is due to bright light, so floaters help with this too, as did reducing the photoperiod. But the latter only goes so far, bright light is still bright light. What is the light spectrum?

Flourish Tabs are excellent for swords and Sag.

For the GH, check wiith your municipal water suppl;ier, it may be on their website, or you can call them. Also explain the pH adjusting process.

Byron said:

The photos show us more, and the light intensity may be high but more plants can help deal with that. Floating plants are highly advisable. The other benefit of floating plants is that they can assimilate CO2 from the air and this for aquatic plants is four times faster than submerged plants, so that would certainly not be a CO2 issue. And they will use more nutrients, thwarting algae even further.

The BBA on Anubias is due to bright light, so floaters help with this too, as did reducing the photoperiod. But the latter only goes so far, bright light is still bright light. What is the light spectrum?

Flourish Tabs are excellent for swords and Sag.

For the GH, check wiith your municipal water suppl;ier, it may be on their website, or you can call them. Also explain the pH adjusting process.

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I forgot to mention that I am using RO water, and I have tested it before. There were no traces of anything other than the natural PH of the water. So supplements are needed for this tank because the water in my area is is off the charts for GH/KH (well water) and I cant use it without risking serious problems. I absolutely considered floaters, are there any tough-as-nails floaters that can tolerate current somewhat? This tank absolutely needs flow because of its length.

Thank you all for your responses and advice by the way!

I forgot the light specs here. The light is a self described Full spectrum at 6500K. It has white, red, green, and blue lights. The PAR at 12in is 72. Lux is 4800 at 12 in and it is 1950 lumens. It is described as a medium to high light. It definitely made a huge difference when i installed it. The greatest being the sudden algae explosion (not a point against it because previously there was not enough light reaching the substrate). Here is the product on amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KK6G8ZL/?tag=ff0d01-20

P.S.
I would have picked a more expensive lamp from a more reputable company, but I have a budget and this one seemed to get good reviews.

My experience with LED is next to zero, but this sounds OK so we can move on. By OK I mean sufficient intensity and 6500K is perfect. I still recommend the floating plants...Water Sprite (Ceratopteris cornuta) is ideal, similar plants are Frogbit and Water Lettuce. These three are "substantial" so less problem with current and they really suck up ammonia and provide shade. I have my swords growing under an extensive canopy of these floaters and they thrive. Some stem plants do well floating, Pennywort is one I have used.

RO water is fine, but you haven't indicated the fish species. I saw a Botia sp loach in one of the photos, what other fish are there? Messing with parameters is always risky because it is interfering with the natural laws of chemistry and biology and it is always best to use these rather than work against them. Once I know the fish species I can deal with this.

Agree on the floating plants. I had similar issues with an LED that was too bright. This solved the problem for me https/www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07K6H6CB5/

I have been running the lights at 55% of normal intensity for the last 2 weeks and the difference is amazing already.

Byron said:

My experience with LED is next to zero, but this sounds OK so we can move on. By OK I mean sufficient intensity and 6500K is perfect. I still recommend the floating plants...Water Sprite (Ceratopteris cornuta) is ideal, similar plants are Frogbit and Water Lettuce. These three are "substantial" so less problem with current and they really suck up ammonia and provide shade. I have my swords growing under an extensive canopy of these floaters and they thrive. Some stem plants do well floating, Pennywort is one I have used.

RO water is fine, but you haven't indicated the fish species. I saw a Botia sp loach in one of the photos, what other fish are there? Messing with parameters is always risky because it is interfering with the natural laws of chemistry and biology and it is always best to use these rather than work against them. Once I know the fish species I can deal with this.

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2 small clown loaches
1 yoyo loach
1 blue gourami
1 common plecostomus
1 knight goby
1 bamboo shrimp

Its an odd mix, but they all seem to get along. I tried to pair up fish that thrive in similar conditions and occupy different levels of the water column and its been working out for a few months so far.

Fishguy134 said:

forgot to mention that I am using RO water, and I have tested it before. There were no traces of anything other than the natural PH of the water.

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Well since you have not listed any fertilizers in use and based on your pictures I am concluding CO2 and lighting will not help your plants. You need to sue a fertilizer. Also since most fertilizers don't have calcium or insignificant levels of magnesium and calcium 2 of the 17 nutrients byron mentioned. So you also should be montitoring your GH and probably adding a GH booster. In your pictures I see possible indications of iron deficiency, magnesium, calcium.

Basically the anubias is the only plant in your tank that can deal with the low nutrient levels in your tank. And the slow growth is a result of the lack of nutrients. your RO water doesn't supply any plant nutrients. The fish in your aquarium are the only sources of nutrients and that doesn't appear to be enough based on the photogrpgraphs. . Its slow growth is due to these levels. You substrate is mostly inert and will not supply enough nutrients for plants. Eco complete substrate is advertised as containing plant nutrients. But it is mostly mined rock which may or may not release anything into the water .

Fishguy134 said:

I got a new 36 watt LED light (used a light calculator) that easily get A bit above 70 PAR to the substrate.

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Light calculators in my opinion are not accurate. But assuming the calculation is correct you have too much light, For tank without CO@ the recommended light level is 40 PAR or less.

Fishguy134 said:

PH: a little over 7.0 trying to get it back to 7.5.

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7.0 is perfect and I would recommend you leave it there.

Most fertilizers assume your tap water is supplying some of the nutrients plants need. But you are use RO water which supplies no nutrients. So in my experience many fertilizers don't work well without tanks filled with RO water. I would therefor recommend you mix some of your hard tap water with the RO. I would recommend you try Nilocg.com Trive fertilizer. Use a GH test kit and adjust your mix of RO and tap to maintains a GH of about 4.

I do use Flourish comprehensive, I did get a bottle of Flourish Iron as well. I was thinking that it would be smart to add a little tap water to each water change to boost the GH/KH. I have been hesitant to add more iron because I do not have a way to measure Iron levels yet.