New to planted aquariums wondering about CO2?

[Streetbob]

Hey guys, I'm new to planted aquariums and have a 55 gallon aquarium with a few live plants and moss. I plan on adding a few more plants in the near future as well as 4 German Blue Ram's, 20-30 Cardinal Tetra's, and 2-4 Emperor Pleco's. I recently purchased a 7.5lb CO2 cylinder with electric Regulator and just bought a 16mm ID 22mm OD Inline Diffuser for my Eheim 2217 canister filter. I had to cut my 1/2" hose going from my pump to my spray bar to add a expander/reducer to expand the hose from 1/2" to 5/8" to house my Hydor ETH-300 300 watt Inline water heater and plan on adding the diffuser after the heater then reducing the line back down to 1/2" to the spray bar. My question is for how long out of a 24 hour period should I run the CO2 set-up? Should I run it 24/7/365 or should I add the CO2 power cable to my timer with my LED light fixture? The light currently runs for 14 hours a day.

[Crush]

Usually you run co2 on your lighting cycle.

[Tetranerd]

Higher light= higher co2 use

And you can run it 24-7, or run it on a solenoid and timer/controller.

How much light does the led fixture produce?

If it's not high intensity, then too much co2 is a waste or will bring your system out of balance. Balance of water quality, light, nutrients, and co2 are the key to healthy plant growth.

Read every article online you can find. The more information you learn then the easier this planted hobby becomes.

Good luck.

[Streetbob]

It's not an expensive fixture but it's super bright! It's too bright to look at when turned on. It's a 48" full spectrum light with 156 led's and it says the following for the led's

-132 White 8000K LED's
-12 Blue 460NM LED's
-4 Green 500NM LED's
-4 Pink 465NM LED's
-4 Red 625NM LED's

[Tetranerd]

Lumans? Total wattage of fixture?

[Streetbob]

Not quite sure on the Lumans or total wattage but here's the fixture I have http://www.yescomusa.com/collections...-tank-lighting

[lindsy.bounds]

I run my co2 30 min before lights come on and shuts off 30 mins before lights go off. In theory the light you ordered would be great but that all depends on what wattage the leds are. Either way though a 48" light for 45$ is a win. Just not sure how it will do with the plants. You will have to keep us updated

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[lindsy.bounds]

I will add that on a 55g tank you are going to need massive amounts of to reach the bottom. 55's are really hard because of how deep and narrow they are. Your going to need something like a finnex ray2 but it will run you 120-160$. All depends on what kind of plants you want to grow. Let light be your limiting factor and your plants will thrive

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[Tetranerd]

I'm no led lighting expert. But a 44$ led light seems great for viewing fish, but intensity for plant growth may be low.

I add up the total wattage of all LEDs and it looks like 20 to 25 watts total output. Seems low for most plant growth. Low light plants may be ok. But I've never used LEDs.

And I agree with Lindsey, depth is an issue with light penetration.

[Streetbob]

Here's a few pictures of my set-up, what do you think? The light seems like it penetrates good to me, it actually shines through about 1/2" of my PFS substrate.

[lindsy.bounds]

Beautiful tank. The melon sword and anubius don't require high lighting so even if the light isn't great you should have some success. Co2 without a strong light though seems like a bit of a waste.

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[Streetbob]

Thanks, I'm going to try and see how it goes with this light and the co2 and if I end up needing a better light I will save some money and get one. I'm pretty new at all of this so I got to take it one step at a time. I won a 7.5lb co2 bottle and a electric regulator setup and a fish auction Sunday for $55.00! I ordered my reactor today, so hopefully it will be in soon and I can see if the co2 makes a difference with that light.

[lindsy.bounds]

That is a hell of a deal!

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[troy tucker]

With most plants you don't need co2. I use root tabs in a low-tec. planted tank. The plants have a natural co2 cycle in the tank. If your filter doesn't braking the surface. Your plants will use the natural co2 the tank make when the light are out. If you brake the waters surface the co2 will bubble out. Co2 can be a great thing to have if you are growing exotic aquatic plants. Then you need a real good light. Just the little bit I know about plants and I would never say don't do that. learning is where the fun is.

[Tetranerd]

So your the goofy looking guy at the auction!!!😂

Thanks, I'm going to try and see how it goes with this light and the co2 and if I end up needing a better light I will save some money and get one. I'm pretty new at all of this so I got to take it one step at a time. I won a 7.5lb co2 bottle and a electric regulator setup and a fish auction Sunday for $55.00! I ordered my reactor today, so hopefully it will be in soon and I can see if the co2 makes a difference with that light.