freshwater refugium

[koi]

what if i dose liquid co2?

[soymilk]

personally i prefer co2, because I can adjust on the fly. I only tried excel for a brief time, but it worked ok. I always thought I saw more growth with pressurized co2

it was also automatic, and I didn't have to do anything but dose ferts. But all that aside excel should work pretty good. I still think you need more light....

and i hate sunlight.... it grows algae on everything.

[myjohnson]

what if i dose liquid co2?

You can....but having a bottle is better.

Basically, the best way to get CO2 into the water is via reactor hooked up to the outlet hose of a canister.

[koi]

The only problem is money. And the purpose of the sump was because my canister on my 2215 was cracked and i didnt replace it so i just turned it into a sump and everythings balacned. So there isnt a problem with an over flow box or anything. I currently dont have the money for a pressurized co2 system. Cheapest ive seen is 100 dollars. Yeh i know soymilk algae is getting annoying but isnt carbon suppost to cure that.

[myjohnson]

carbon is not the cure.

algae eaters, snails, shrimps are not the cure.

Balance is the cure.

[soymilk]

i've never heard of soymilk algae. Sounds dangerous.

carbon might help, but like thai said. You have to find a balance. Even so some algae is a pita. I can recall battles with BBA, GSA, and so on. I hope you're prepared to do manual top offs for your sump religiously everyday.

[koi]

Yeh im beggining to find my sump isnt worth the time. And i missed the coma after soymilk. I'll just pick up another tank during the dollar a gallon sale for my shrimp. I guess the algae will start dieing off as i add more plants. the tank still isnt done.

[soymilk]

i was just joking about the soymilk algae. I know what you meant lol.

Thats the whole point I was trying to tell you. Adding more plants will not kill off algae. I had a 20 gallon packed to the brim with plants. Dosed fertilizers and used pressurized co2. When the growth became too much for me to deal with, I turned off co2 and stopped dosing. Within a week algae was growing again.

[myjohnson]

wait, you mean soymilk algae is not a real algae?

Wow!

[soymilk]

yea.... its a real thing. Its an algae that gets everyone to start upping their SW game. Once you get it , your bank account drops significantly. true story.

[koi]

So carbon Is going to be the cure to algae?

[soymilk]

no one thing is a "cure". The best thing to do is to find a balance, like thai said. finding a balance between water changes, water flow, carbon, nutrients, and husbandry all lead to the cure.

Carbon might help.... it might help a lot. But if you sit down and figure out what you want. What kinda tank you want, what plants you want, and what livestock you want. It'll help you better plan, and execute the idea. Most of the time, a off the shelf product will not save the day.

proper planning/stocking and good maintenance go a long way.

[koi]

yeh i know soon excel is going to cost me more than dosing excel in the long run

[Mzungu]

I'm not sure if you've stated this before, but why can't you keep shrimp in the main tank?