I've always done low-tech planted tanks with no carbon dioxide or co2 injection
no high light and no crazy fertilization schedule because it's easier and cheaper right right
find out what i learned when i added a pressurized co2 system
to this aquarium and whether or not i think it's worth it
hi I'm Irene with girl talks fish here with practical tips on nano fish and planted aquariums
and every year i like to do some kind of really different aquarium setup where i learn something
major for example with the shy guys jungle tank i learned how to keep shy fish that don't hide all
the time and then for the back to basics planted tank i learned how to finally beat algae and
balance a low-tech planted aquarium the reason why I've stayed away from high-tech setups for so long
is because it just seemed really complicated like there's a lot of advanced technology terms
i wasn't familiar with and i still needed to learn how to balance a low-tech tank using kind
of just the light and nutrient levers without the complexity of adding the co2 lever as well plus it
just seemed like the wild wild west a lot of it is seemed very like DIY you know get your parts from
here but don't get that part from there you could make your own co2 system i decided to go just with
a pressurized system up front because from the research i did it seemed a lot more reliable and
require less time and effort on my part there's also money as a factor you know it already costs
several hundred dollars to set up an aquarium even more money if it's a planted aquarium and
then add on that pressurized co2 component and that's several hundred dollars more plus i kind
of heard some horror stories of what happens when like the co2 cylinder accidentally you know pushes
all the rest of its co2 into the tank or you leave that regulator on too long and you end up
basically suffocating and killing all your fish definitely don't want to do that the reason why
i decided to give a co2 a shot even though it is more high maintenance and you'll often hear
low tech supporters say things like oh the plants they just grow way too fast you're constantly
having to prune them or dump tons of fertilizer into the water and it's just not worth it
for me when even when i balance a low-tech tank there's no algae but the plants just seem kind of
stalled and sometimes even struggling a little bit and i need the help i honestly think it's my tap
water so i did a little research on my wastewater treatment plant and they use basically kind of
like an industrial commercial water softener on our city's water it's not the same process it's
a lime slurry but it basically strips all the minerals the good minerals out of the water and
it raises the pH which to me seems like the worst of both worlds but whatever maybe if i can just
limit the light limit the co2 it won't grow out of control but it'll be just enough to get over
that hump so that my plants are actually growing a little bit plus maybe then i could try some
new plants that i haven't been able to try before that require higher lighting settings like certain
red plants or carpeting plants now this is not a step-by-step instructional video on how to set up
a co2 system but i will tell you briefly after i did some research here is my shopping list of
everything i thought i needed the one thing that was not as clear was how big of a co2
cylinder to get because everywhere online seem to say like get the biggest tank you can you know
20 pounds you'll never regret it you'll never run out you know i mean you will run out but you won't
have to change it out as often but that seemed really big so for a 20 gallon tank i talked to my
co-worker lizzie who is really into high-tech subs and she was like yeah if you're gonna just run it
minimally you could get a five pound cylinder and only have to change it out twice a year so i was
like all right I'm good to go i first went to a commercial welding company and they quoted me like
a hundred and thirty five dollars for a cylinder and then i searched around some more and found a
mom and pop store that was like this home brewery supply place and it was only a hundred dollars
plus they will do refills for 15 each time and give you back the same cylinder rather than a
beat up other cylinder that somebody used pretty much everything else i just order from co2 art
they've got this nice like kit system that you can set up and then I'm not sponsored by them
but aqua pros has a promo code that i use so thank you mike finally i also got a sample co2 regulator
from aquarium co-op to test which Cory's already shown on camera during one of his live streams we
didn't go with that particular product um but the overall cost ended up being a total of 350 dollars
for a basically brand new co2 setup so let's finally talk about my first impressions I'm going
to split it up into two categories how did the equipment do versus how did the aquarium plants
themselves do so for the equipment um i started off installing that cheaper sample regulator i got
and that was a nightmare like obviously that was my first time ever installing a co2 system so i
had no idea what i was doing but the regulator itself i could not tighten it onto the cylinder
without it the dials just hitting the cylinder and then i couldn't keep rotating it to attach it
properly and plus the manual that was provided um wasn't really detailed at all so i ended up having
to download instructions for another regulator that were online and then i had to try to
piece together what pieces of information i could use to apply to this regulator that i was trying
to install lots of hours of sweat and frustration but once i finally got it installed i ended up i
had a bubble counter on it and i set it for approximately one bubble
per second and then i already had a fluval 3.0 led light that can go to highlight settings and so
currently it's set about 30 intensity for 10 hours a day but I'm continuing to adjust that
three months after installation that cheaper regulator i was using started intermittently
buzzing like any time it was on it would be like i think i have a recording of it here
i looked online there's several reasons why this could be happening i was like you know
what i already have that more expensive co2 art regulator that i ordered originally so
let's install that the installation was much easier it was clearly a higher quality product
so that is what I'm currently using now and hopefully i won't have any problems with it either
finally now that it has been three months i noticed that the diffuser in the back
is kind of getting clogged up not as many bubbles are coming out despite having the same kind of
bubble count level so i found out after doing some research online
sometimes it's helpful to have two co2 diffusers so that when the first one gets clogged up
you install the second one keep that co2 running and then you can clean the first diffuser using
kind of a diluted bleach solution and let it completely dry before you use it again
as for the plants you can see they did great oh my goodness the aponogeton crispus and the dwarf
aquarium lily they were pretty much stunted for months on end looked like fake aquarium plants
they never grew and then once i added co2 they finally grew leaves all the way to the surface
the stem plants they were also stunted in growth and you can see the bacopa is doing well
as well as the water wisteria finally converted successfully the java ferns i felt like were
losing fewer leaves they weren't turning brown and gross anymore and then i didn't really see
much difference with the cryptocorynes they kind of stayed about the same size as for which plants
kind of grew out of control the most well clearly you can see the pogostemon stellatus octopus
is very very dense and thick actually this is the first time I've been able to colony breed
besides the corydoras but colony breed the platies they're really voracious about going
after their fry and now there's enough plants in here where the fry are finally surviving so
looks like I'm gonna have to make another trip to the fish store in some time in the future to
re-home them but between the pogostemon stellatus and then the aquarium dwarf aquarium lily
as well as the aponogeton, the three of them were just shading out all the other plants down below
and then the bulb plants in particular they were basically anytime i would stop feeding them
root tabs every single week they would show their displeasure by melting back their leaves and i
was like okay this is too much the aponogeton in particular is eating me out of house and home so
i ended up removing it and giving it to my local fish store exotic aquatics and when i measured it
the longest leaves were 26 inches long and then it grew a flower stock which this was the first
plant that ever flowered for me that stock was 36 inches long so clearly too big for this aquarium
as for algae i used to have to when it was a low-tech balanced setup i still had to scrape
off green spot algae or green dust algae whatever those on the front panels and sides at least every
like one to two weeks but ever since i added co2 it's pretty much completely disappeared
i do have a problem with black beard algae on that sponge filter in the back and that's because it's
right under the light and there's not a lot of plants blocking the shade on it so
clearly i have some adjusting to do with the lighting and co2 situation and i might need the
help of a little bit of easy carbon liquid carbon to to solve that problem so is it worth it and
for me at least that's a definite yes mainly because a) i told you before my water is not
great and the plants were going way too slowly even in a balanced low-tech aquarium and then b)
i am a full-time working adult so i have the budget for it i would say I'm doing more of
a medium tech setup because it's very low light still low amounts of co2 low amounts of fertilizer
so for me that's great do i plan on converting my other tanks to high tech maybe i mean for the
10 gallon tank it's sitting on the kitchen counter there's no really good place to put a co2 cylinder
that wouldn't get constantly kicked and then the 5 gallon tank well it's currently going through a
brown diatom algae bloom mainly because i just had to restart it after poisoning my beta tank
which you may have heard about um and then i think 350 dollars for a brand new co2 system
would be a little too much to spend on a 5 gallon tank for a betta fish that is just my office tank
versus this is a 20 gallon display aquarium full of community fish that the whole family can enjoy
if you missed my whole story on how i accidentally poisoned my betta fish tank you can see it over
here otherwise take time to enjoy your aquariums and I'll see in the next video