DIY CO2 and fish

[wildroseofky]

I am playing around with diy CO2 and was wondering if there would be a chance to harm my fish. I have a 3 bottle diy system on my 10 gallon plant only tank right now to experiment with. Five days in and I am getting about 2-3 bubbles a second. I have 17 watts plant light on top of tank and will be adding another 17 watt light for 34 watts on a 10 gallon tank.

I have a 29 gal. with fish and fry, plants, and a T8 4' shop light with two 32 watt, 6500k daylight bulbs hanging 4" from water surface. According to the aquarium light guide chart people keep recommending for light info that gives me low light. However I am getting algae growth that is starting to get pretty bad. My fish and shrimp keep trying to eat it all but they are not keeping it down enough. My plants are growing better but I want to add CO2. A diy setup is hard to regulate but I cannot afford to purchase a commercial CO3 set up right now. I am working on getting better lights right now so I can have moderate to high light. I just want to be sure that I won't kill my fish with my diy CO2 setup before I add it to the 29 gallon tank.

 

[aqua_chem]

It can potentially harm fish, but you can take precautions against it. Foremost is just using an appropriate number of reactors for the tank size. Second, you should buy a drop checker to monitor CO2 levels so you can see if something goes awry. That being said, I think it's unlikely to get a CO2 overdose on a 29g if you're being reasonable with your reactor(s).

As far as the algae issue goes, what kind of algae are you seeing?

 

[wildroseofky]

I will buy a drop checker before setting it up on the 29 gal. I am using two 16 ounce bottles on the 10 gallon and getting 2-3 bubbles per second.

The algae I am getting is brownish-green and is mostly on the plants. It is worse on the Christmas Moss I am trying to grow. I have some on the glass walls of the tank but the Mollies and shrimp have been keeping most of that off. I just bought 5 more ghost shrimp to help with it. I have some in the 10 gallon and it was getting bad. I don't have fish or shrimp in it. I have had the CO2 going for 5 days and it seems to be clearing some. My plants are growing now. I had three pieces of water lettuce and some duckweed I want to multiply but the duckweed was dying. Today both the lettuce and the duckweed have new leaves. My christmass moss in that tank is also starting to grow.

 

[aqua_chem]

Could be diatoms, could be BBA or BGA. Can you get a picture up?

 

[wildroseofky]

After all my research I have figured out that I have planaria. They are really bad. I stirred the water up and they fell down to the substrate and some attached to my shrimp. The poor shrimp has been scratching and picking them off and eating them. I feel so sorry for it. I am going to clean the tank and give it a really good vacuuming and not feed for a few days. I am ordering some pancur which I have read will kill planaria and not bother the fish or shrimp. If frequent cleaning and no food doesn't do them in, I will use the pancur.

I will have to borrow a camera to get a picture of the algae. I shook the plants and vacuumed most of it off today. It came off easy. My filter intake is also coated in algae. I am going to give my tank a really thorough cleaning soon. I vacuum every week and do frequent water changes but I have been overfeeding which my research shows leads to panaria outbreaks.

Would this CO2 indicator work? CO2 Indicator

I need a cheap solution for now. I also found this CO2 setup and wondered if it works. It was cheap compared to others I have found.

Freshwater Planted Aquarium & Plant Care: Fluval Pressurized CO2 Kit

 

[aqua_chem]

It's cheap, but you'll eat through a lot those replacement cartridges compared to an traditional pressurized kit, making it cost much more in the long term.


I'm sure that drop checker will work fin. They are really super simply, and beyond stylistic concerns, quite hard to mess up.