Do I need CO2?

[Oohitsae]

I upgraded the lighting on my 2.5's this weekend, and now I'm worried I may have too much light on them.

Originally I had one of my boyfriends shop lights hanging over them in the basement, but I wanted to move the tanks into view and so I put the original covers over them and added 13w 6500k CFL's into it.

Now I'm worried that it'll be too much for them. 5.2 watts/gallon....

Is there any way to get out of using CO2? Can I just lower the light schedule, or can I buy some excel and be okay?

 

[armymp327]

for that size of a tank i think excel should be fine if you have live plants

 

[Oohitsae]

Thanks!

If I had been able to find a lower watt bulb in that Kelvin range I would have went that way, but it was practically impossible.

Hopefully Excel will work! I cant afford to do anything with CO2 for another month or so.

Do you also think I should cut the light cycle down? I have always used 12hr/day on all my tanks, but I can change the timers on these 6 to make it less if need be.

 

[Sillyfishies]

Thanks!

If I had been able to find a lower watt bulb in that Kelvin range I would have went that way, but it was practically impossible.

Hopefully Excel will work! I cant afford to do anything with CO2 for another month or so.

Do you also think I should cut the light cycle down? I have always used 12hr/day on all my tanks, but I can change the timers on these 6 to make it less if need be.

For that small of a tank a DIY co2 (about 10$) would be more than adequate. Just change the liquid out when you do your weekly waterchange!

 

[gman42]

I have a 2.5 gallon tank, with the same 13w bulb, and i add excel. I have really good plant growth.
Heres a pic of the tank.

 

[aqua_chem]

If you have spiral bulbs, you probably won't need CO2. If you have U-tube bulbs, then you might need it. That's not an unreasonable amount of light in either case.

 

[Oohitsae]

I have the "sylvania micro-mini CFL"
they are the spiral ones instead of tubular, so I guess it'll just be a waiting game to see what, if anything, I'll need.

gman, your tank looks really good!!

 

[DanTheGuppyMan]

Yeah, I think you would get off fine with Excel. I mean take for example Rivercats 220g...she doesn't inject any CO2 at all! Just glut