What are the basics I need for Co2? Link and pics of my tank~

CatSoup

My plants are doing okay, but they are a little yellowing at times. There is also a weird black algae growing on some plants. There are root tabs in the Quickcrete playsand, and I use two t12 6500k lights, 55 gallon, 2 ft deep. The aquarium lillies took aff, but have thinned out a bit since these were taken. You can see the black stuff in the second pic. All of my plants are true aquatics (ThatFishPlace.com and bulbs from the aquarium section at walmart), although I couldn't name them all.
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I found this link. What of these parts are essential? Cheap suggestions that work well?
Setting up a CO2 system

Thanks for the help!

CatSoup

Oh, and I also have two HOB filters that I turn off during the day.

BradSD

Are you running carbon in your HOB filters? Try dosing with Seachem Flourish once a week, remove the carbon if you are using that and just use a mech filter. Your lights should be okay like it is currently. CO2 will probably lead to trouble down the road if you go that route. Oh and dont forget to do weekly water changes, I think this is most important step of all. I lost a tank due to hair algae because I got busy and stopped doing water changes. How long are you running your lights? I suggest buying a timer and running lights about 8 hours a day and adjust if algae is not a problem. You might could increase light time if everything is well balanced.

Jayy

Are using any fertilizer? Seachem comprehensive is great and recommended by Bryon. Also how long do your lights stay on and how old are your bulbs?

Byron

On the "yellowing" you mention, that is a nutrient issue that substrate tabs on their own will not solve. Some nutrients are taken up via the leaves (potassium, ammonium, as well as CO2) so a good liquid fertilizer is best. Flourish Comprehensive Supplement mentioned by prior members is what I use, and there is also FlorinMulti by Brightwell Aquatics.

On the algae, that is caused by light beyond what the plants can use because nutrients are missing. The liquid fert will help, and you might consider reducing the duration (haven't mentioned yet how long the light is on now). I control brush algae with light duration.

The CO2 would give you faster growth obviously, provided all other nutrients are increased to balance, along with the light. But the first photo is beautiful, I see no reason to go down this road when the tank is this lovely.

The state of the Echinodorus major in the second photo intrigues me; mine is doing much the same, after a couple years of incredible lush growth and even producing an inflorescence with flowers (very rare) and adventitious plants (also rare for this species). I'm not sure what is wrong in either case.

Byron.

CatSoup

Thank you so much for the responses.
My light bulbs are fairly new, I only had one 36 in t5 before I got the two t12s. I only run them during daylight hours, sometimes a little later than the sun comes up and goes down, but not much. I almost think they did better with the t5 alone, because the lilies have thinned out since upgrading to the two t12s.

CatSoup

Oh, and no ferts really, and no carbon either.

LADY K

tank looks awesome why turn off filters?

Byron

You will need nutrient fertilization or the plants will continue to falter until they die. The Flourish Comprehensive Supplement, twice a week, should do it.

On the light, these were different fixtures, yes? Because T5 tubes do not fit the "basic" fluorescent fixtures that take T8 and the older T12. And T5 is more intense light.

Byron.

jmlampert23

I was also thinking of going with a co2 setup. Fluval make a small ready to use out of the box system that petco sells. It is fairly inexpensive. about 40 bucks. I was thinking of trying that out. I think I might hold off for a bit.