Liquid Carbon

[mossonthemoon]

Is it a case of once you start using liquid carbon, you always have to use it, or can it be added once in a while to help plants if they look like they are struggling? I don't have many plants in yet, but hope to get many more as soon as possible. I don't want to go down the gas CO2 route yet, but am partially considering liquid carbon. This is because I have pretty high light and know that the plants may need some extra help. I really would rather not have to dose the tank with different mixes of fertilisers and things daily or close to it, though. I have a lot going on and I know this would be the first area that would slip. I also may have to go away and I trust my friend to feed my fish, but I don't want anyone having to mess with plant foods.

 

[mike455555]

okay. where to start. liquid carbon lasts in the tank for a day ~ then its gone. so you can add it to keep plants growing. but if you want to keep that growth your going to have to keep up with the carbon.
also with the riccia make sure your not overdosing. as you can kill it off (recommended amounts are fine though)

really you should be adding ferts if your adding co2

 

[mossonthemoon]

If anything I would be under-dosing if I did use it, which is what I was worried about. I would love to avoid the use of it and keep things as simple as possible, but I was wondering whether it was one of those things that could just be added occasionally if leaves start to look rough, and I guess that would be in conjunction with fertiliser of some kind. My plan was always to try to avoid it all together and see what happens, but I'm just thinking ahead, I guess.

 

[mike455555]

fertlizers come before co2 to me honest. so your better off adding ferts before you does co2 the plants will need them more but by all means add both

 

[mossonthemoon]

My thinking (I think...) is that if I add fertilisers, I will probably need carbon, because of how much light I have. If I can avoid both then that would be good, but I don't know how likely that is. I will try to find a good fertiliser to have on hand in case I need it. Just from my experience with non-aquatic plants, it seems like it would be fine to give fertiliser to encourage a perk-up, but I really wasn't sure about whether or not carbon would work in the same way. Of course, I could be wrong about the fertiliser too.

 

[daz4321]

if you have high light you must add ferts and carbon otherwise you will get algae.
Light needs to be your limiting factor not the ferts or carbon.
If you dont want to add carbon reduce the lighting, but you will still need some ferts at some time.

 

[mossonthemoon]

Thank you. I have never had a problem with algae in this or my previous tank. I have, however, had periods of poor growth. I don't mind slow growth, but I sometimes had weakened leaves, or browning. More challenging plants had mixed results. Some did well, some did not.

 

[watertown28]

Thank you. I have never had a problem with algae in this or my previous tank. I have, however, had periods of poor growth. I don't mind slow growth, but I sometimes had weakened leaves, or browning. More challenging plants had mixed results. Some did well, some did not.

LOL yeah I never have problems with algae EXCEPT in my planted tank. I can go way more time between WC on the other tanks with more fish, but my planted tank , if not kept up on, I get just about all the kinds of algae you can imagine.

Remember that more plants = more care. I have found that even though the flourish and flourish excel say recomended, that is on a general dose. For mine, I need to add the flourish every day at least or I get algae. I am sure it might be due to something being off and short for the plants, and until I have money for all the test kits and other dry single frets, thats what I have to do

 

[SO19Firearms]

and until I have money for all the test kits and other dry single frets, thats what I have to do

Buy the ferts, leave the test kits. With the money you save on the test kits, buy more ferts.

IMO

 

[mossonthemoon]

I have had a lot of plants at once before. The entire back was packed, the middle had a few in the gravel plus maybe 10 Java ferns, and there were a few in the front. It wasn't quite a jungle like some tanks here (though the back was dense), but it was pretty heavily planted. I guess I was lucky with the amount of light I used as far as algae went because the most I have ever had was a little bit of hair that didn't last. But I had the other problems that I described more often.