CO2 advice?

[Canadian Man]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Actually I kind of wanted to get into a few red leaved plants .. aren't those more light-demanding?

With that said, I'm happy to forgo MH over my FW tank, if something like PC will do the trick. I just haven't saved up for the ballasts and stuff yet, so it might just have to wait a bit.

I had some red leaved plants in my fw tank a year or so ago. At that time I had co2 (yeast and sugar method) and the same 3 bulb flourescent light's that I have now. The plant's grew great! Once they reached the top of the tank the red color was outstanding!

[trilinearmipmap]

If you want high light, PC will be more than adequate. For a 30g tank one length of PC bulbs will be fine.

I suggest you check out www.ahsupply.com if for an excellent pc setup with 6500K bulbs. Depending on the length of your tank either a 96W (36") or 55W (24") bulb would do the trick. I have 4 x 55W on a 75g tank and I am looking at downgrading my lighting because the plants grow faster than I can prune them.

I do not suggest MH due to heat issues and due to nutrient imbalance/algae issues.

[Chad]

I have 1x 55w PC 10k on my planeted 25gal. I do zero suppliments, no CO2 .. nothing.. the plants get over grown within a week. I have one that is actualy blooming right now.

At one point I did the DIY CO2. It seemed to help, had the little O2 bubbles coming off the plants, always a good sign. But the growth rates were about the same as it is now with zero CO2 additions.

Just my thoughts..