Supplying CO2

Candee

I am getting my aquarium tomorrow (its used so if it looks good I will bring it home and set it up tomorrow). its about about 50g - I do plan to have plants. This is my first tank for fresh water fish (I have had turtles) - my parents always had fish but nothing with plants - just guppies and tetras...
I was talking to one of the guys at the local pet store and he says I really need to buy a CO2 pump if I want to keep my plants alive other wise in the end I will spend more money on buying more plants.
My brother has a huge tank with multiple plants - he has no CO2 supply and the plants are doing just fine.
Is this really necessary or is he just trying to sell me something I don't really need?

MoneyMitch

hes trying to sell you something you dont need. plants just need a balance of light fert and c02 (which fish can provide). as long as you dont have insane lighting you wont need c02 to keep plants alive.

Candee

Thank u Mitch - U saved me an extra couple hundred bucks (and my husbands complaining lol)

Byron

Mitch is correct, I certainly concur. But you do need to have things in balance as Mitch said, so maybe we can ensure you do. Some plants will not fare well in what we call low-tech or natural aquariums (those with no added CO2 and minimal light) but most will be fine. All my tanks are natural, photos under My Aquariums. Do you have any plants in mind? And what light do you have (the type, name and watts)? What is the substrate? And if you know the pH and hardness of your tap water, I may have some ideas.

Byron.

Candee

I will be getting my aquarium today so I don't know the details yet. I know it comes with lights and reserve lights. I won't know my PH levels until I get everything up and running and I dont know how hard our water is I just know it is pretty hard (according to the Internet it is at 11).

I told the gentleman hat I will take the tank with everything in it (except the fish) including the plants. I am not sure what type of plants they are maybe you can help me there if I post a picture.

stephanieleah

what is the lighting/CO2 balance? If more light is provided need there be more CO2? I have a little plant that isn't doing well so I've been adjusting the lighting and trying to do trial and error. The other plants are fine with our strong lighting.

Jack Middleton

the more light you provide, the more nutrients and CO2 the plants will need.
If its not doing too well, please ID the plant, and lower the light for the time being.

stephanieleah

What do you mean ID the plant? I have lowered the lighting and they are doing better. I don't know what wattage I'm using, but I was giving them up to 16 hours a day of light. Now only about 10. There's still one plant that I might just take out. I don't know what it's called, I've looked everywhere online.

Byron

ID the plant means provide us with the name; a photo will probably help if you don't know the name.

To answer the question in your prior post, there has to be a balance between light (intensity and duration) and nutrients (which includes CO2, macro- and micro-nutrients). There is no magic formula, but there are some guidelines. The first (and single most important) element is the light. If you could tell us the type and wattage (assuming this is fluorescent, the name and wattage will be shown at one end of the tube) and how many tubes over the tank, and the tank size (gallons and length) we can start from there.

Also, what type (species) of plants do you want? Some do better in lower light, some require more light and this gets into the issue of carbon dioxide (CO2). Knowing the goal you have for a planted tank will allow us to advise on light and nutrients.

Byron.

[By the way, Jack Middleton is banned from this forum.]

stephanieleah

thanks, I'll take a picture of the plants because I haven't been able to find it's name from online research.

and off the topic and probably confidential, but what would one have to do to be banned from the forum?