Aquatic Plant Central - View Single Post - leaving CO2 during the night.. controlling algae

BenBOMB · 05-17-2009, 10:06 AM

You have to find out how much time your plants spend using CO2 during the day, and then start releasing O2 and gassing off their CO2.

I also had a very very bad case of green hair algae, it totally took over my tank. After changing the light cycle from 10hours to 7hours and adding liquid ferts 2-3 times a week, I noticed that my algae problem completely stop for the most part. Just learning the lighting cycle of your plants will really help you in defeating algae.

I have diy CO2 aswell and just leave it in 24/7, if I had a choice I would just turn it off at night but cannot without just gassing it off. Also I think the only light the the plants will really take effect from other then the one right above them is sunlight, other lights are normally not powerful enough. And the CO2 during the night is fine for the fish, they don't perfer it and actually would like it better if you ran an Air pump at night to push that co2 out, then don't run it during the day to let the plants recieve the co2.

Also when your plants pearl that means that they have gotten more then enough CO2 and are starting to release O2, knowing when your plants pearl is also a good thing to know, mine pearl around 7pm to 8pm when my lights turn on at 3pm and off at 10pm.

Just those few things will help your plants in the long run for sure.

05-17-2009, 10:06 AM	#2 (permalink)
BenBOMB Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Cedar Falls, Iowa. - U.S.A. Posts: 250 iTrader Ratings: 5 iTrader Positive Rating: 100% Plant Points: 17650	Re: leaving CO2 during the night.. controlling algae You have to find out how much time your plants spend using CO2 during the day, and then start releasing O2 and gassing off their CO2. I also had a very very bad case of green hair algae, it totally took over my tank. After changing the light cycle from 10hours to 7hours and adding liquid ferts 2-3 times a week, I noticed that my algae problem completely stop for the most part. Just learning the lighting cycle of your plants will really help you in defeating algae. I have diy CO2 aswell and just leave it in 24/7, if I had a choice I would just turn it off at night but cannot without just gassing it off. Also I think the only light the the plants will really take effect from other then the one right above them is sunlight, other lights are normally not powerful enough. And the CO2 during the night is fine for the fish, they don't perfer it and actually would like it better if you ran an Air pump at night to push that co2 out, then don't run it during the day to let the plants recieve the co2. Also when your plants pearl that means that they have gotten more then enough CO2 and are starting to release O2, knowing when your plants pearl is also a good thing to know, mine pearl around 7pm to 8pm when my lights turn on at 3pm and off at 10pm. Just those few things will help your plants in the long run for sure.