# Not enough CO2 or Too much light?



## I3raven (Jan 30, 2013)

Recently, I am having a problem controlling BBA on my Blyxa Japonica. I have a 17 gallon tank that has a 26W CFL right above it. My 17 gallon tank is a foot in height and my light fixture is 4 inches above the water level. I dose a capful of excel every other day. My light is on for 7-8 hours per day. Circulation in my tank is good because the filter creates a small "waterfall". Is the problem in my tank too much light or not enough CO2? Should I lower the amount of light per day and switch out the bulb with something weaker? I'm sort of confused right now...


----------



## Xiaozhuang (Feb 15, 2012)

I'm tempted to say lighting itself is not the issue. I run pretty high lighting on all my tanks high tech or low tech/soil, with flow or filterless/still tanks, from 1 gal to 50 gal and I've seen other forms of algae like GSA/GD/GW/thread/hair but I've never seen BBA before ever in my many years of aquarium keeping.


----------



## tetra73 (Aug 2, 2011)

Lift your light higher, 6" or more. Try a different height and you should be able to gauge with your eyes to see how much light you are losing by moving the light higher or lower. You may not be able to quantify it. I have a 48" long t8 light strip on my 20g long tank. When the light is 3" or less above my water, I know I am getting medium high light. I noticed that my Blyxa, the tips, were getting BBA. Right now, the fixture is about 5" above. The BBA isn't spreading and new growths aren't showing BBA. Lift the light higher. I too dose with 2x excel, about 5ml daily.


----------



## I3raven (Jan 30, 2013)

Xiaozhuang said:


> I'm tempted to say lighting itself is not the issue. I run pretty high lighting on all my tanks high tech or low tech/soil, with flow or filterless/still tanks, from 1 gal to 50 gal and I've seen other forms of algae like GSA/GD/GW/thread/hair but I've never seen BBA before ever in my many years of aquarium keeping.


From many cases, I've heard CO2 is a problem, but I have so much circulation in my tank I can hear it from upstairs! I also pretty much overdose excel. I think the amount of light is the imbalance here.


----------



## I3raven (Jan 30, 2013)

tetra73 said:


> Lift your light higher, 6" or more. Try a different height and you should be able to gauge with your eyes to see how much light you are losing by moving the light higher or lower. You may not be able to quantify it. I have a 48" long t8 light strip on my 20g long tank. When the light is 3" or less above my water, I know I am getting medium high light. I noticed that my Blyxa, the tips, were getting BBA. Right now, the fixture is about 5" above. The BBA isn't spreading and new growths aren't showing BBA. Lift the light higher. I too dose with 2x excel, about 5ml daily.


I really think its my light, but how can I raise a clamp lamp 6 inches? I'm having the same problem as you are, the tips of my Blyxa are getting covered with BBA. Thanks!


----------



## CoffeeLove (Oct 31, 2012)

I3raven said:


> From many cases, I've heard CO2 is a problem, but I have so much circulation in my tank I can hear it from upstairs! I also pretty much overdose excel. I think the amount of light is the imbalance here.


That doesn't mean you have good co2 in your tank. It means the opposite. You want just the right amount of surface agitation. 
And more importantly it is not good to overdose the excel. At all. Unless you have a ton of plants to use it all up.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2


----------



## jkpedrita (Jun 5, 2013)

Have you tried dosing excel daily instead of every other day? I read somewhere, probably on this forum, that the half life of excel is only 11-12 hours so by 24 hours it is completely gone.


----------



## Hardstuff (Oct 13, 2012)

I would recommend going yeast CO2 . Look into Tom Barrs reactor for yeast or pressurized CO2. He feels BBA is do in part to CO2 fluctuations . The reactor is cheap to make & will be cheaper in the long run than excel! Just make sure to have an empty container after the fermentation bottle so yeast cannot make its way to the tank. Look into EI dosing as well & make sure that CFL bulb is 6500-6700k only. Your bulb seems skimpy in my opinion. Not enough light Too much agitation will out gas your CO2 but you do want a little surface ripple. An outside HOB filter set low will out gas excess CO2 so fish will not be gassed. If your results running 24 7 are too low in ph than the reactor has a fail safe mechanism built into it to burp excess CO2 while the powerhead that runs the reactor is off. So the CO2 will harmlessly burp to surface when the powerhead is off. Again google Tom Barrs DIY CO2 reactor an you will dig up his blue print. I have been running it now for 3 weeks an it works like a charm. Very stable PH means very stable CO2. It holds my 10 gallon at 6.5 (24 -7 ) like a controller! Do not let macros & micros crash. 50% water change every week or 2. A seperate canister filter would be very useful as well. Spot treat BBA areas with peroxide & keep filters clean. My 2 cents.


----------



## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

Lots of opinions and lots of cases of BBA: with high light low co2, low light no co2, and the other 2 permutations.

I would:
- lower surface agitation a bit
- check that Blyxa gets decent circulation
- give Blixa a hair cut to remove all BBA
- mercilessly remove any BBA you see
- do a nice WC after the trim
- *keep the tank clean: you do not want any decaying organic matter like melting leaves, old driftwood, etc
- if you don't already, look into 1/3 EI
- recommended Excel dosage is 1 ml per 10g, you can safely dose x5 for a week or so daily
- keep removing any BBA
- I wouldn't, but you can go with 19w CFL (75w equvalent), ~3$

v2


----------



## tetra73 (Aug 2, 2011)

Hardstuff said:


> I would recommend going yeast CO2 . Look into Tom Barrs reactor for yeast or pressurized CO2. He feels BBA is do in part to CO2 fluctuations . The reactor is cheap to make & will be cheaper in the long run than excel! Just make sure to have an empty container after the fermentation bottle so yeast cannot make its way to the tank. Look into EI dosing as well & make sure that CFL bulb is 6500-6700k only. Your bulb seems skimpy in my opinion. Not enough light Too much agitation will out gas your CO2 but you do want a little surface ripple. An outside HOB filter set low will out gas excess CO2 so fish will not be gassed. If your results running 24 7 are too low in ph than the reactor has a fail safe mechanism built into it to burp excess CO2 while the powerhead that runs the reactor is off. So the CO2 will harmlessly burp to surface when the powerhead is off. Again google Tom Barrs DIY CO2 reactor an you will dig up his blue print. I have been running it now for 3 weeks an it works like a charm. Very stable PH means very stable CO2. It holds my 10 gallon at 6.5 (24 -7 ) like a controller! Do not let macros & micros crash. 50% water change every week or 2. A seperate canister filter would be very useful as well. Spot treat BBA areas with peroxide & keep filters clean. My 2 cents.


Yeast CO2 is precisely what would cause CO2 fluctuations. Only using pressurized CO2 you can get consistent CO2 level. Here is my excel only low tech dirt tank. Just 2x excel daily, 5ml. No, I don't need CO2 in this tank. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=403505



OVT said:


> Lots of opinions and lots of cases of BBA: with high light low co2, low light no co2, and the other 2 permutations.
> 
> I would:
> - lower surface agitation a bit
> ...


Yeah, I would probably use 2 clamp light with lower watts instead. Then, again, the OP can get a 48" long 2 bulbs t8 light for $14 at Lowes + $8 for 2 65k t8 bulbs.


----------



## I3raven (Jan 30, 2013)

CoffeeLove said:


> That doesn't mean you have good co2 in your tank. It means the opposite. You want just the right amount of surface agitation.
> And more importantly it is not good to overdose the excel. At all. Unless you have a ton of plants to use it all up.
> 
> Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2


Instead of overdosing, I'll try to make it consistent by dosing one capful every day. I guess surface agitation just adds more oxygen to the tank.



jkpedrita said:


> Have you tried dosing excel daily instead of every other day? I read somewhere, probably on this forum, that the half life of excel is only 11-12 hours so by 24 hours it is completely gone.


Ah, no wonder the levels are fluctuating. I'll definitely try this out.



Hardstuff said:


> I would recommend going yeast CO2 . Look into Tom Barrs reactor for yeast or pressurized CO2. He feels BBA is do in part to CO2 fluctuations . The reactor is cheap to make & will be cheaper in the long run than excel! Just make sure to have an empty container after the fermentation bottle so yeast cannot make its way to the tank. Look into EI dosing as well & make sure that CFL bulb is 6500-6700k only. Your bulb seems skimpy in my opinion. Not enough light Too much agitation will out gas your CO2 but you do want a little surface ripple. An outside HOB filter set low will out gas excess CO2 so fish will not be gassed. If your results running 24 7 are too low in ph than the reactor has a fail safe mechanism built into it to burp excess CO2 while the powerhead that runs the reactor is off. So the CO2 will harmlessly burp to surface when the powerhead is off. Again google Tom Barrs DIY CO2 reactor an you will dig up his blue print. I have been running it now for 3 weeks an it works like a charm. Very stable PH means very stable CO2. It holds my 10 gallon at 6.5 (24 -7 ) like a controller! Do not let macros & micros crash. 50% water change every week or 2. A seperate canister filter would be very useful as well. Spot treat BBA areas with peroxide & keep filters clean. My 2 cents.


I would like to do a DIY CO2 reactor, but i'll have to do more research before I even start one. I don't want any accidents with fish being gassed or yeast running in the water. My bulb specifically is a 26W Daylight 6500K. The area of light where it's most concentrated is starting to form green algae on rocks, so I don't think it's inadequate. I no longer think lights the problem, so I'll address the CO2 problem with more consistent doses. I actually found out it's staghorn algae instead of BBA, but isn't it also caused by fluctuating levels of CO2? Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it. 



OVT said:


> Lots of opinions and lots of cases of BBA: with high light low co2, low light no co2, and the other 2 permutations.
> 
> I would:
> - lower surface agitation a bit
> ...


Thanks, I think this is going to the be the plan i'll follow, but I might need to research more on EI dosing.



tetra73 said:


> Yeah, I would probably use 2 clamp light with lower watts instead. Then, again, the OP can get a 48" long 2 bulbs t8 light for $14 at Lowes + $8 for 2 65k t8 bulbs.


Problem is, my tank is only 20 inches in length so that create excess light on the sides of the tank. In the future, I'll probably add another clamp lamp to distribute light more evenly.


----------



## tetra73 (Aug 2, 2011)

I3raven said:


> Instead of overdosing, I'll try to make it consistent by dosing one capful every day. I guess surface agitation just adds more oxygen to the tank.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I think they have a 24" or 36". Too long is not bad. It means you have more light to the edge of the tank.


----------



## I3raven (Jan 30, 2013)

tetra73 said:


> I think they have a 24" or 36". Too long is not bad. It means you have more light to the edge of the tank.


Ah, I tried looking at my local Home Depot, they had sizes larger than 24", nothing close to 20" or it would be too inadequate in the amount of light.


----------



## Hardstuff (Oct 13, 2012)

Ok , you can bad mouth DIY CO2 all you want, But this reactor holds my tank more stable than pressurized Co2 24 7! I Know, I run pressurized tanks & I get a little more flux in my High tech high pressurized high end otomizer that I run which works very well but I could gas fish just as easy in that tank than your typical DIY Yeast set up. But I run a solenoid to keep levels low enough to prevent that from happening. Toms Internal reactor has been holding my 10g stable at a set ph for 4 weeks now. Ph 6.5-6.6 , kh4 day after day after day. Besides if I was worried about gassing I would just time out the powerhead & that would be that! Instead I let it run 24 7 with the help of the HOB filter outgassing the extra CO2 which is very stable. No detectable flux in ph. My pH usually runs 7.8 without Co2 even with the (crapy) EXCEL!. Now I not only have stable desirable low natural ph but stable CO2 which is at a level that is non lethal for fish, another side bonus. The CO2 level can be controlled by the flow from HOB filter or canister filter! The cost 8$$$$$ not 350$$$$ for pressurized!!!
The BBA is on the run now. It has stopped growing & is dying off. Using EXCEL just treats the symptoms not the cause! There are many causes , too many to list. Spores that came in on substrate material or plants , Low nutrients, High general hardness, poor lighting wrong spectrum, LOW CO2 or fluctuating Co2 levels. Some say dosing Fe helps . Im currently doing that as well. Poor REDOX. From what I can see. Right now my BBA is on the run but not gone. I will post back but I plan on beating this stuff down with a more holistic approach rather than using meds or chemicals. That being said in the early stages peroxide for spot treatment in bad areas could jump start the process which is more natural anyway & good for the tank if not over dosed!!
Im not against pressurized CO2. I love them! Just its not always practical to drop 300 on just Co2 every time you want a new set up. Besides If yeast is done right , it works very well, if its done wrong, it works really bad!


----------



## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

The cool "!" aside, could you please describe how you are keeping the dissolved co2 stable with a DIY setup? Thx.

v2


----------



## Hardstuff (Oct 13, 2012)

The DIY is kept stable because the reactor puts out a constant supply which seems in part do to the reactor design. You need to check out it on line to see exactly what it looks like & how it works. Just google Tom Barr's internal DIY CO2 reactor & it should come up in aquaticquotient.com . The blue print shows it. Now it could in part be do to my mixture which I dose a few drops of PO4 & trace as well as gh booster, sugar & yeast since I use r/o water to make the yeast solution which would rule out any chlorine killing the yeast. Still not sure if chlorine has any effect on the yeast nor if my additives help at all. But there is some natural flux in the production that would seem to make changes in ph but I have found very little change. I caught it as low as 6.4 in the morning & not any higher than 6.7 at night before lights off. 
My tank water is clearer than my high tech which I take good care of & baby it & watch over like a child! My little pressurized high tech has double canister filtration & until about a month ago had little to no algae. some green algae on the back wall, but then a small amount of bba started after I introduced a small amount of flourite to that tank. So I have it in both tanks. I blame it on the fact that it came in on the Flourite since I added it to both tanks. Now bare in mind it is the very low brown reddish looking stuff not turfy looking. Very hard to remove!
Getting back to the reactor. It also has a built in ventura tube that brings back unused CO2 into the powerhead ventura & chopped up many times spins around the reactor again & again. Before the ventura tube sucks up extra gas I watched it for hours as the gas builds up slowly & dissolves before my eyes without seeing bubbles until many hours later then the mist will appear. 
The key for stability seems to come from the HOB filter which like I said,I disliked up until now. At night I set it a little faster just to make a slight ripple on the surface, this helps out gas some excess from buildup at night. Then during the day I tweak it down to conserve a little more on CO2. Now if I was going away I would just run it slow the whole time & thats it. I check the ph 6 times a day & it stays between 6.4-6.7 (24 7). The HOB is the small Fluval . I use 100% remineralized r/o water. Not sure on larger tanks in the 50 60 gallon range but 2 reactors might be needed with 1 Big HOB filter with at least 1 good size canister for the main should work. 
Again its about balance between the HOB filter & the TBarr reactor . It works for me on small formats but could be a way for people to get started with a big planted tank that wants to cut corners & save for pressurized Co2 at a later date! The money they save by not jumping into Pressurized CO2 could go towards a nice lighting system with a plan at some time to go pressurized but in the short run use a more natural approach & use stable CO2 from yeast reactor systems instead of more expensive an caustic EXCEL!
To answer the question on yeast getting into the tank, I had that happen before with a different system but then I realized a separate bubble counter or empty bottle between the yeast generator & tank would fix that problem & it has. Like I said I love pressurized , but this may be opening up more options for me & maybe other people as well for small formats & bigger tanks that the money is not there yet but you can still cure the itch . Planted tanks are like coffee. You need more than 1! If I missed anything that you need to know say so. Enjoy


----------



## Hardstuff (Oct 13, 2012)

I realized that I did mention the second way of controlling the CO2 before but maybe it was not understood. There is a burp pipe on 1 side about 2.5 inches from the top which allows excess CO2 to vent from the reactor. These large bubbles will vent to the surface when the powerhead is off as the gas builds inside the reactor. This venting will cause little CO2 buildup in the tank overnight if you desire to run this way. So a separate venting area & or valves will not be needed. I do not run it this way therefore , I do not need a timer. Thanks


----------



## tetra73 (Aug 2, 2011)

Hardstuff said:


> Ok , you can bad mouth DIY CO2 all you want, But this reactor holds my tank more stable than pressurized Co2 24 7! I Know, I run pressurized tanks & I get a little more flux in my High tech high pressurized high end otomizer that I run which works very well but I could gas fish just as easy in that tank than your typical DIY Yeast set up. But I run a solenoid to keep levels low enough to prevent that from happening. Toms Internal reactor has been holding my 10g stable at a set ph for 4 weeks now. Ph 6.5-6.6 , kh4 day after day after day. Besides if I was worried about gassing I would just time out the powerhead & that would be that! Instead I let it run 24 7 with the help of the HOB filter outgassing the extra CO2 which is very stable. No detectable flux in ph. My pH usually runs 7.8 without Co2 even with the (crapy) EXCEL!. Now I not only have stable desirable low natural ph but stable CO2 which is at a level that is non lethal for fish, another side bonus. The CO2 level can be controlled by the flow from HOB filter or canister filter! The cost 8$$$$$ not 350$$$$ for pressurized!!!
> The BBA is on the run now. It has stopped growing & is dying off. Using EXCEL just treats the symptoms not the cause! There are many causes , too many to list. Spores that came in on substrate material or plants , Low nutrients, High general hardness, poor lighting wrong spectrum, LOW CO2 or fluctuating Co2 levels. Some say dosing Fe helps . Im currently doing that as well. Poor REDOX. From what I can see. Right now my BBA is on the run but not gone. I will post back but I plan on beating this stuff down with a more holistic approach rather than using meds or chemicals. That being said in the early stages peroxide for spot treatment in bad areas could jump start the process which is more natural anyway & good for the tank if not over dosed!!
> Im not against pressurized CO2. I love them! Just its not always practical to drop 300 on just Co2 every time you want a new set up. Besides If yeast is done right , it works very well, if its done wrong, it works really bad!



Well, I played with DIY CO2 yeast solution when I started the hobby. Is not like I haven't tried it. :icon_surp The yeast solution, initially, would produce a lot of CO2. It tends to fad out after a week. Some recommend using wine yeast and various receipts to make the yeast solution in order to prolong the fermentation process. Oh yeah, if your lighting isn't high, maybe in the low medium, I guess your CO2 would be stable since your tank CO2 demand isn't great. Try that with medium and medium high light.... I haven't read much about any technological break thru concerning about yeast CO2. The CO2 is still being generated by the yeast fermentation process. Well, of course you have to be running your CO2 24/7 because you really don't have a choice.


----------



## Hardstuff (Oct 13, 2012)

Actually the tank in question , we can call it tank 2 is a medium light tank. 2x15 T-8s right on the glass. It would make it into medium high to high if I actually had good reflectors, but the tank is not low light at all. It's a 10 gallon so it does not take many watts to make it to at least medium. Now 1 bulb would be low light for sure. Regarding I must leave it on or I would not generate enough gas is wrong because my ph falls to close to 6.0 if I do that so gassing or stressing fish would be an issue. 
With the hang on the back filter I get constant out gassing which controls the excess. I checked my ph again today 6.6 the whole day running the HOB low powered . My yeast is lasting closer to 2 weeks not 1 week. But in the winter without a heater to heat the yeast it will be slower for sure. Yeast is not different than pressurized CO2 in regard to how it is delivered. Today my yeast tank out performed my pressurized tank because my canister filter was causing too much surface agitation! Its a problem I have because that tank has a filter that is a little to strong for the tank. The atomizer works great but I have to watch the flow on the canister. 
If yeast is done correctly it appears to me in the case of the reactor I have built , can work really well but would get harder to figure out how to regulate it with multi reactors in a bigger tank. Like I said, in a larger tank I prefer pressurized any day but when budgets are low they are a very viable option at least for the shorter run in bigger tanks using correctly designed reactors.
This tank was set up to learn only & has zero livestock. Today I noticed the BBA was still growing a little more which I contribute to high organics in the substrate so I spot treated with peroxide & yes EXCEL. The tank seems alive with lots of o2 even if its from the peroxide I feel its a good thing & is heading the tank in the right direction. 
I feel that BBA is from various causes & is not always related to CO2. It could be in 1 tank but a deficiency or damaged plants in another tank. Or a dirty filter loaded with organics, maybe bad flow in another tank or a combination of things. Point is create a healthy clean natural tank with lots of plants with all other things being equal & BBA should go away. I know some may still say I have all those elements & I still have BBA! Well how do you really know you have all of those elements in place & how do you measure DOC's anyway unless you have expensive tests done in a lab! Some may suggest nitrates are related to high organics but do not always go hand & hand with DOC'S anyway. 
I started running carbon in both tanks now I will see what that does. Purigun is not in my budget for now!! If I have high organics the BBA should go away in time if all other things are good as well. Maybe this thread should be called (Not enough of something or too much of something else) or a combination of the two? Something is broken & needs fixing.


----------



## Xiaozhuang (Feb 15, 2012)

Algae presence seldom correlate directly to singular factors such as light or CO2. Its about building up a systemic balance that tends towards plant growth rather than lower lifeforms such as algae. Low lifestock tanks seem easier to balance, same with low lighting. But ultimately its about finding a combination of growing plants

Growing glosso carpet in a non-CO2 5 gal tank with 150 watts MH pendant (suspended above as to give equivalent of high par to a 3 ft tank). This has been running for about 3.5 months, glass has never been wiped for this shot (there is some algae fuzz, spot etc but not visible in shot). Algae much?









This older non-CO2 tank from about 6 years back; thats a 55w PLL fixture on a 10gal tank. Tank has been running for about a year when shot was taken. There are about 3 or 4 small fishes that are hiding. TDS levels about 700-900 so quite high organics? Water changes get done once every 1.5 mths or so. The glass needs cleaning once in many months for viewing clarity. Gunk builds up on the substrate but otherwise even the rocks don't get green or BBA etc.









Yup they're using the exact same filter; I got rid of the rimmed tank later on cos I felt it was ugly.
The exact same tank dimension and lighting as the first tank was used to make this high CO2/high tech tank;


----------



## Hardstuff (Oct 13, 2012)

You did not mention your Gh & kh for 700-900 TDS. How do you know what exactly is making up the high TDS? Is your GH & kh high? Most of that high TDS is probably coming from nutrients, protozoans, minerals, organics,waste , protiens, bacteria & ferts even if your Gh is low. Even soft water with a TDS of 100 can get to 1000 if enough soup builds up! They all add up in time an most are not available to the plants or fish anymore. High TDS can be associated with poor redox as well. I would not let a tank go that long without a water change even with tanks that look as good as yours! 
I am more into less wattage tanks to conserve energy , but not nec. low light tanks but medium to medium high or even high with good reflectors. 
That being said I agree about finding balance, plants for the right combination for the growing condition. Finding a natural balance between the system as a whole.
I believe & I think you might agree is that there are different reasons why algae develops. Its not always CO2 , but it could be many other factors that throw it out of balance. In my case I believe the BBA spore were brought in on a bag of Flourite that I added to both my tanks. But I have not been paying careful attention to my High tech tank so it fell out. BBA takes over maybe because of a combination of things like high organics & not enough CO2 just to name a few. Or maybe just not enough CO2 on a regular basis. My tank had zero algae for 8 months an was crystal clear with only some healthy algae with dense plantings. I am paying more attention to the CO2 now & I decided to run carbon for a week only & already the water looks better & the BBA stopped growing & this tank is not infested at all but started developing this stuff so I want to beat it down before things get crazy!
My other CO2 tank which is DIY, is doing better also. I boosted the Fe, & traces & the BBA looks like it is slowing down. If I had to guess , I expect to have this stuff licked in a week or 2. I also believe that the higher plant density which is healthier than lower density tanks will create more organics so the substrate will need a little more attention than the lower density plant tanks which are more prone to get algae, meaning trade offs.
Thanks for your input, your tanks look nice.


----------



## Xiaozhuang (Feb 15, 2012)

Yeah High TDS is generally not a good thing. Was doing experiment with coral chips/hard water to see how it affects plant growth. Think it affected the fish more than the plants? The hardier species like vals, crypts seem to grow okay even in high TDS. 

I think high organics/ammonia does trigger algae blooms. Sometimes I wonder whether temperature plays a part as well (its hot here in the tropics between 80-86f), its something less debated in these forums. I think adequate plant mass is also necessary, especially if higher lighting or livestock is used. A lot of folks with algae issues could fill the tank with more plants


----------



## Hardstuff (Oct 13, 2012)

I agree about both organics & ammonia. Ammonia is an instability issue. So the algae will take advantage of that. High organics I believe also but I know of some experienced people that would not agree. They put most cards on the CO2 , macs, micros. 
However in just 24 hours my first tank looks better already ( pressurized CO2) with the carbon running in the filter . I also bumped up the Co2 as well so its hard to say but the water is extremely clearer than just 24 hours ago. I bumped up the Fe & traces because of the carbon. The tank seems more alive as well.
Now the other tank which is still new is doing better as well some BBA is retreating but there seems to be a strong hold at the bottom on rocks do I believe to flow issues. The tank is underpowered at the moment, but a new canister is on the way. Right now I just have a HOB filter , a small internal filter, & a powerhead hooked up to DIY CO2. The tank is filled with plants & just today a large amount of healthy green algae is appearing on glass only which I am leaving for competition for now. I will run the new canister for about a week with carbon & the bio media with sponges & wool. Then take the carbon out if the BBA continues to run.
I also feel besides keeping the CO2 up that nutrients cannot crash. Tank#1 has been really eating up the NO3 lately. So I recommend everybody to keep up with the EI dosing & stay on top of it. Every tank will be a little different.
I live in a hot climate as well so I know what its like . My tanks can get to 84F if not careful. I believe most healthy tanks should be kept below 80F. The nutrients may also have to be bumped up as well at higher temps , but O2 becomes an issue for both fish & plants so its better to strive for lower temps. 
Thanks for your comments Xiaozhuang. Also I am sorry for hijacking this thread but feel it was productive to keep it going because of such a common problem for many.


----------

