1) I have 2 DIY CO2 bottles but I have tried to use them before and unfortunately something horrible happened each time and my fish died from a pH shock. You may say "but if you buffer your water well then pH fluctuations will not be that big". Yes I did this but with a 35g tank you know its asking for trouble and in my experience I am not willing to kill this bunch of fishI just want them to enjoy the tank and sooner or later the aquarium will be filled with plants.
2) I may have 75watts over a 35gallon tank but the light source is 30cm away from the water surface and 70cm away from the gravel! Does this still cause problems?
3) So if no CO2 will be injected do you suggest removing one or two fluorescent lamps? I have 2 whites and one pink! Which should I remove if so?
Cheers for the help!!!!!
Before you remove a bulb, try only 1 bottle of DIY. If you have a good mix, it may be all you need. It'll avoid the pH shock. And turn off the CO2 at night, if you can. If you can't turn it off, try adding an airstone at night to negate the CO2. That'll reduce the pH swing at night to well within a fish's tolerance level. A really bad swing for me is from 7.0 to 6.8, which is still not bad at all and I don't turn off my CO2 at night. Do you have a means to measure CO2?
Do you know the color temperature of the bulbs? My gut says remove the pink bulb if you must remove one, but knowing a color temperature would be helpful. My color temp is between 6500-6700K. I don't think removing a bulb will make a big difference because of the distance between the source and the gravel. It's pretty wide, like 28 inches almost. Not much light is getting down there anyways and even less will get down there if you remove a bulb. Removing a bulb would still give you 1.42 and CO2 wouldn't be absolutely necessary, but your plant choices will be limited. If you go this route, may I suggest a few plants that will do well. These plants will do well whether you remove the bulb or not. And considering the distance, my gut says not to remove a bulb.
Slow growers: A few of these will add character to your tank, but won't help with algae, and many seem to be algae magnets. Picture me sitting on the floor with a good sponge wiping my anubia leaves.
Anubias
Java fern
Java moss
cryptocrynes
Fast-growers: Fill your tank mostly with these plants. They grow quickly and out-compete algae.
Egeria species, both Egeria densa and Egeria najas (Often call anacharis, elodea, ect.)
Hygrophile speciecs, most grow fast and will grow pretty well with 1.42 WPG.
Cabomba carolina. There are two other species that require much higher light, but carolina will do alright with the WPG you may have.
Limnophila sessiliflora, this one is entering noxious weed lists, it's very hardy but harder to come by, at least in the states where I live. Great plant, however.
If you have a good substrate, or use root tabs, you can get away without using CO2 in your system if you remove a bulb, but your growth won't be remarkable, and you may or may not solve your algae problem. If you can get these products, I highly recommend one as an alternative to CO2 injection and the other is just a nice compliment. Seachem exel and Seachem flourish. Exel doses liquid CO2 into the tank. It may be impractical for the size of your tank, but it is easy to use and may give your plants the boost they need to over come the algae. Flourish is just an all-purpose fertilizer, which is quite good.
Sorry I couldn't be more help, but I am not sure of what's available in Cyprus.
