Getting CO2 this week! Journal of tank's evolution

[FishBR]

My advice would be to stop or slow the melting,stop making water changes. Let it age and those plants will thrive. Alternanthera is not too sensitive but when I stopped that whole weekly water change? Algae that had plagued it died off..mostly.
The whole idea of Co2 to me is to reduce fussing with the water and CONSTANT dosing. I mean you paid good money for the Co2 and ferts and then drain it out and down the sink? Why? If you don't drain every week..you wouldn't need constant dosing - for those who do that.
My biggest problem is my M. boesemani will eat so many types of aquarium plants and its hard to guess what they will ignore.

I respectfully disagree. The plants are thriving right now with 65% weekly water changes. I am not sure what you mean by constant dosing and letting CO2 down the drain. The plants do not consume CO2 overnight and when lights are off and therefore CO2 will dissipate rather quickly. There is no conflict between weekly water changes and consistent and adequate CO2 dosing. Moreover, frequent WCs are very helpful in fighting BBA, which thrives in tanks with decomposing organic matter (dead leaves, leftover food, etc.).

 

[Stan510]

I thought I read you said your plants are melting? They looked fine to me. With Co2 you will get faster growth and gets some semi aquatics to take the underwater life much easier- but with no Co2 it can be done also..but slower no doubt.

 

[StevenF]

Time for an update. It has proven difficult to grow plants successfully in New Orleans’ very alkaline and hard water, even with CO2 injection. Several plants died or faded away, including: Alternanthera Reineckii (regular and mini), Nasea Pedicellata Golden, Rotala Macrandra "narrow leaf," and Rotala Wallichi. I also had a major outbreak of BBA. However, after getting a pH meter and doing the 1 full point pH drop test, I realized that I was not injecting enough CO2.

Your problem was probably not CO2. Instead it was caused by a fertilizer that is incompatible with your ph and alkalinity. In your first post you stated your PH was 7.7. The iron DTPA in your fertilizer works best with a PH of 7.5 or less. Above 7.5 it rusts and becomes unusable by plants. When you increased your CO2 the PH topped and that help keep iron available in your tank.

You Also list your KH 113. Many of the ingredients in your fertilizer are sulfates. Sulfates react with kH causing many of the nutrients in your fertilizer to oxidize rendering them unabalable for plants.

the 3rd issue i see with your fertilizer is it uses Sodium molybdate. The sodium will also react with your sulfate ingredients in the bottle. resulting in insoluble molybdate which is unusable to plants. I made my own sulfate recipe and notices all of these issues.

I would recommend switching from thrive to GLA iron DTPA EDTA micro fertilizer. it is chelated and has iron DTPA that is stable up to a PH of 7.5. IT is also Chelated so KH will not effect it. and the molybdenum is also Chelated so it will not react with other ingredients. It also has a better ballance of nutrients. My RO water tanks a normal PH of 7 so Iron DTPA works fine in my tanks.

Unfortunately it doesn't have nitrogen, potassium, phosphate, and magnesium. However you can use this fertilizer calculator to determine exactly how much of each nutrient your fertilizer dose is adding and then you can use the calculator to determine how much potassium nitrate, potassium phosphate, potassium sulfate and magnesium sulfate to match what thrive was adding. you can get these items on the GLA and nilocg websites.

For CO2 I use an inverted bottle with no air in it. Once secured n the tank fill it with CO2. The CO2 will dissolve as needed into the water. Refill the bottle as needed. In my small tank the small bottle needs refilling about 4 times a day. So I use a timer to turn on My CO2 for only 1 minute 4 times a day. With an inverted bottle it is impossible to kill your fish with too much CO2. So you don't need a drop checker either.