CO2 for a planted tank??

[daveip]

hi there ... another query because i don't want anything to die in my tank ... and that included plants!!

anyways ... i have a juwel rekord 60 tank. its roughly 60 litres or 16 us gal.
i want to get real plants for my tank but i haven't read up much on the part about plants and i've gone ahead and fitted an undergravel filter to my tank to work alongside the puny sponge filter that is pre-built to the tank. i just read in the DIY section about how someone (sorry i've forgotten your username!!) made the outlet from the powerhead in the filter to go under the surface of the water to stop surface agitation. the surface agitation bit is getting me abit worried. is an undergravel filter going to agitate the surface too much so that i wont be able to keep a reasonable amount of plants in the tank to accompany the fish

 

[smithrc]

have a read through the planted tank section - there are a lot of other factors to think about before worrying about CO2 - Lighting being the main one.

If you have an undergravel filter that is air powers you might want to get a powerhead on the uplift tube instead of the air - they are loads quieter and have a directional output.

 

[simonbrown403]

Most plants wont do to well with undergravel filtration, the flow of water pulls to much O2 down to the roots which hinders the absorsion of nutrients, it can also carse the roots to rot.
The bubbles prodused by thr UG filter will drive the co2 out at the surface

As for the co2 thing if you are not sure on your water chemistry it might be best to give it a miss, co2 conbines with calsium carbonate (KH) to produse cobonic acid which will lower your PH, if you dont watch your KH your Ph will crash, which will harm your fish and plants.

The inbuilt filter is desigened to filter the tank, i have a record 60 and i,ve hade no problems with it.

My advice would be, get rid of the UG filter, and add a planting substrate ie florite etc and start with some basic plants, you might be suprised

 

[daveip]

thanks for the replies guys!
when i went to check my KH yesterday i believe it was around the 10o mark. the water that i get here is pretty hard.

i'll be adding more lighting to my tank soon in the form of a t5 compact power light. and today i bought a 15w arcadia freshwater tube for the tank. its still less that 1w/l though =/

as about the ug flitration, would it still be possible to run it but with a very slow air lift??

 

[smithrc]

thanks for the replies guys!
when i went to check my KH yesterday i believe it was around the 10o mark. the water that i get here is pretty hard.

i'll be adding more lighting to my tank soon in the form of a t5 compact power light. and today i bought a 15w arcadia freshwater tube for the tank. its still less that 1w/l though =/

as about the ug flitration, would it still be possible to run it but with a very slow air lift??

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60l is around 13 UK gallons (it'll sound more in the end )
a 15W tube above that with a reflector should give you about 1.8W/Gallon

a good amount to start out with really...
(although the power compact will boost this loads )

 

[@ombomb]

Smith, how did you fit the relectors to your Fluval? Just stick them on?

I've added two more tubes which are held in place with cable ties, which I think is exactly what you did, but want to maximise the light from them.

 

[smithrc]

they are the arcadia ones that clip onto the tubes

 

[@ombomb]

Not seem them, to the online retailers!

Thanks Smith.

 

[simonbrown403]

Try this link to bigC's record 60 lighting upgrade

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=83620