Re: CO2, Low Light, Rust

["Giancarlo Podio" <gp at isaconsulting_com>]

Rachel, I think you have drawn your own conclusion and possibly the best
solution yet for your tank, that is go back to the way you were doing things
before seeing you were happy with them. I too have some low light tanks
which I do not add any CO2 in any form and don't have any algae problems at
all. My lowerst light tank at the moment is 1WPG, the only nutrients the
plants get are Flourish tabs every few months, weekly water changes and fish
food/waste. When I wanted to get into faster growing tanks, I had no success
by just adding extra light, or just CO2 or extra fertilizers. Success only
came for me when I addressed all the issues together (Lights, CO2,
nutrients). If you were having good results with Flourish Excel then perhaps
you can try to half the dose and see if any other fish die on you that way.
At these low light levels there is a chance that the plants are not making
use of all the Excel you are providing them and things are building up in
your tank over time. Perhaps try increasing surface agitation if it is low,
this is all I use on my slow growing tanks. I do get a slight brown film on
the glass in the shadowed area below the filter but it's a tiny area and
easy to clean up, it becomes visible after a few weeks, a magnet cleaner or
credit card removes it easily so I don't regard it as a "problem".

Hope that helps
Giancarlo Podio


----- Original Message ----- 

Re: CO2, Low Light, Rust

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  a.. To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
  b.. Subject: Re: CO2, Low Light, Rust
  c.. From: "Rachel Sandage" <rachelsor at hotmail_com>
  d.. Date: Sun, 01 Jun 2003 09:19:03 -0700

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I received two responses to my post asking what the "rust" algae was on my
plants now that I've started adding CO2 to my 1WPG 29 gallon tank. Both
posters said that I need more light.

So, does this mean that you should not add CO2 to a low-light tank? I had
been using Flourish Excel in that tank, but honestly believe it was killing
off my fish (none of the non-bottom swimmers have died since I stopped using
Excel, vs 1 every couple of weeks with excel). I had thought that CO2 was
beenficial regardless of light level. Should I pull out the CO2? I don't
want to add more light to the tank; I am happy with the speed and lushness
of growth, and the very low need for maintenance. I just wanted to replace
the Excel.

-Rachel