Co2

[datewithmidnight]

I am looking into purchasing a CO2 system. Not one of the expensive ones... just a small one that hangs on the back of the tank. I was reading some articles and it says that you should not pump C02 into the water at night. I found one of the smaller systems that you can put on a day/night timer. I was wondering if it matters much if these yeast filled C02 systems... are pumping CO2 at night or will it really throw off my PH balance? Thanks for the help.

[AngelMom]

It would depend on how many plants you have, and how much CO2 the unit adds. The reason for this recommendation is that when the lights on the tank are off, the plants use O2 and give off CO2, just like the fish do, Personally, I wouldn't risk it, but maybe someone with some experience with these units will chime in.

[oscarbartoni]

I would think that on these yeast units that if you tried to shut them off at night the yeast would build up a lot of pressure and maybe explode something or at least cause a leak so that it would not work .

[datewithmidnight]

Here is the system I was looking at purchasing with the on/off feature.

http://www.redseafish.com/Product.asp?dir=y&CatId=99&SubID=61&proID=229

If you could take a look at this and see what you all think... I would appreciate it. I have tried a lot to make my planted tank a jungle, but I can not figure anything out. The next step is this. One of the guy's I work with also had the same issues and he started using a CO2 system and his plants turned very green and really started growing... His tank looked awesome. Thanks for all the help.

[AngelMom]

Hard to say if it's a lack of CO2 or some other ferts. I don't use CO2 at all (I use Flourish Excell) and have to regularly prune my plants or the fish have no room to swim. :eek:

[datewithmidnight]

Yeah... unfortunately, that does not happen with my plants. I have tried many different combinations of fertilizers and the plants grow, but are not completely healthy. Some of the fish owners I know personally, have had the same problems as I, and they said as soon as they got CO2, their plants took off and looked very healthy.

I'm going to try it since I am not having much luck with anything else. I added excel twice a week at first... that seemed to work better than adding a little everyday.