algae and DIY CO2

[Husmut]

Hey!

A few months back I set up diy CO2 on my ninety gal. (Now there's a lot of brew 8O )It was all going nicely then I went away for a week with work and my power head on the "diffuser" got an air lock. By the time I got back, it was an algae garden. (Which my wife thought looked nice!)

All I wanted to know was if the re-introduction of CO2 will remove the algae that I cant get too, or should I treat the water?

 

[Hoovercat]

Getting your CO2 back up and keeping it there with proper fert levels will help the plants outcompete the algae and it will die off. It may take several weeks but it's safer than treating the water with algacide. Decreasing your lighting period while working through this may speed things up.

 

[malkore]

manually remove as much algae as you can. get CO2 going again, and keep nutrients in balance.

It will take several weeks for the algae to completely disappear, but 95% of 'algae treatments' contain phosphate...which means the algae goes away for a few days, then comes back twice as bad as before.

Its hard, but you'll just need to be patient.

Also, you'd be a lot better off with pressurized CO2 on a tank that size....though I am interested to hear about the lighting, and what levels of CO2 you were reaching with how many bottles of DIY mixture. The largest high light tank with DIY I've seen was 55gallons, running 3 1gallon DIY jugs going to a powerhead type reactor.

 

[Husmut]

I just updated my gallery. These were taken about 3 weeks ago, except the first which was taken before I added the lights and CO2. Fair results....but results!
My levels sit around 20-22ppm but I have had it as high as 27ppm.

Light is what I lack for the most. I have fitted my hood with 6X 40 watt NO. Not ideal I know, but it was a case of working with what I had. (I love the DIY thing!)

The brew is kept in three 5 litre pressure sprayers adapted to suit the application. These things are perfect. They have a pressure valve built in. I think I could run it on two of these but........
They have a warming belt strapped around them to keep it toasty for the culture!
The gas is plumbed into the venturi valve of a dedicated power head which in turn is p;umbed into. You guessed it! A gravel vac tube reactor.

It took alot of tweaking over a month period, but it can be done. My system is as reliable as diy can get and it requires very little extra effort

All that said. My next project is a pressurized system.

 

[workfortheman]

Hmm, those pressure sprayers sound cool, got any pics of the CO2 setup?

 

[greenmaji]

I do remember this DIY CO2 system.. Im glad it has been working for you 20-30ppm is great results! Since you like DIY projects you might want to look into replacing the ballasts that your NO bulbs have (HD and Lowes sell 2-F32T8 ballasts for $7-8 a piece if you installed 6 of them it would bring your wattage up to 360 or 4wpg )
btw. thats alot of NO tubes to be running over a standard 90 gallon tank.. I hope you ran T-8's for space sake..