how to add co2 to my planted aquarium

Question
QUESTION: hi nick
im very new to this hobby of fish keeping
i have a 2.5ft x 1ft x 1.5ft tank with 6 banded barbs now(under cycling)
earlier i have a lot of fish(nearly 20 all are big enough ~2")
i setup my tank 1 month ago(same day added all 20 fish also) and i also did all the beginners mistakes
overfeeding, heavily populated, incompatible fish, cleaned filter with tap water thouroughly etc.
fortunately i sought advise from allexperts.com and i want my tank to cycle first so i removed all my fishes

mine is a planted tank with 20w flouroscent light and electronic co2 generator
i dont know anything about aquarium and plants before i started my tank

so pls suggest me how to keep my plants healthy, how can i provide enough light and co2

thx & regards
madhav

ANSWER: Hey dude,

Seems like your a pretty knowledgable guy so far, you know some of the lingo and some of the procedures to maintaining a aquarium. Dont get down on yourself though, that's what this hobby is about learning from your mistakes and reading up on new information and stuff like that. One thing i'm going to tell you to do is join a forum  (this might be a plug lol) i run a site called www.fishaquarium.org it's kinda new but it's the best thing that you can do.. join the forum ask and get quesitons answered with other fishkeepers.. and read up on new information, that's what i'v done for years and with experience from others i am where i am now...

Anyways to answer your question.

Plants need 3 things: Co2, lighting, food right?

Lighting: This is one thing people kinda know.. but dont really they think the standard bulb that came with there tank is enough but it's not. keeping plants is a unique thing where most people dive into that hobby and there plants die.. obviously they are just under knowledged.

There are special lighting systems that people buy (myself included) which benefit plants... there is a terminology with lighting called WPG (watts per gallon) you need a certain amount of wpg for your tank.. dependant apon your plants. I find most plants need 2.4 watts per gallon to substain most plants... 2.4 wpg is about the med lighting specs.... getting up to 4.0 wpg would be high lighting..

Now when you introduce this much light in  your tank you need co2 remember that but we'll get to that in a bit.

So your first thing would be to get some new light for your tank. flourescent compacts t8 or t5's (might wanna do some homework on lighting systems). You also need a special spectrum for plants.. which aquatic freshwater need around 6700k lighting (that's about the norm)

So look for a lighting system such as the following..

2.4 watts per gallon.. so if your running a 55 gallon you want about 130 watts...... Ex. 55 gallons X 2.4 = around 130 (130 is a pretty common system for 55 gallons which is why i gave you that calculation) and you want a spectrum of light at 6700 K. pretty easy eh..


Next thing you want to do is introduce co2 in your tank, without co2 your plants will suffer (because plants makeup is carbon..) You want to keep your co2 at about 30 ppm (parts per million) that's a normal calculation.

But how do i know when i'm at that... you ask.
There are special co2 monitors out right now where it can shwo you. Look on ebay for a ph drop checker.. or co2 drop checker an those things are a visual referance that you put in your tank and tell you when you got about 30ppm because the instrament will turn green... cool eh... do your homework on that too :)

Last thing would be fertilizers... Many people add just the normal stuff out of the bottles they buy at the fish store.. dont get me wrong that stuff is what you need.. it's called trace elements.. (or micro nutrients) but most people dont know that there are other fertilizers you need called MACRO which fish stores dont carry.. there is where the hard part comes in and you have to make your own..

Do research on the EI method.. (Again it's on my website and tells you all about it) , it's basically a method of adding fertilizers to your tank.. where your plants get more nutrients that they neeed... and then after a week you do a water change to reset it all back to 0 and start over, it's pretty easy once you figure it out..

I know that might be a little in depth but i just want you to know everything..

Again a good understanding of the plants your adding to your tank with what they require is a good pre qualifying for your plants..

O one more thing... getting a substrate which has fertilizers in it.. or beneficial nutrients.
Such as:

Red sea Flora base
Flourite
Eco-complete

Any of those three many people in our hobby use.

Hope that helped you out a bit, anymore questions ask me in the forum bud , at least that's a start for you.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: hi nick,
is seachem flourish excel a replacement for co2?
if we use that product can we eliminate other source of injecting co2 into the tank ?
pls advise

madhav


Answer
Basically why we inject co2 into tanks is so plants can get the carbon they need, flourish excell is a substitute for the carbon that the plants require so yes it eliminates other sources of injection : )

why more experienced people use a co2 tank to inject co2 gas is because we can monitor it more and give the tank a stable source of co2... but in your case because your starting out i suggest just using that excell first off :)