# New to CO2



## Mecc (Apr 6, 2009)

Ok I am completley dumb in this area. Earliers this year I started my first delve into planted aquairuims (if my spelling is bad I apologize only had 4 hours sleep). I bought a light that would get me into some low light plants, anubias, Red/green lotus and a few other plants, I spent quite a bit of money needless to say nearly everything is dead or dying a slow death.

Here is what I have.

60gal
compact flourecent light 2x65w with moonlight leds ( very cool btw)
Substrate I bought from aquariumplants.com
2 Penquin 350 biowheels
2 100w heaters set at 82 ( don't know if this is high or not couldn't find any good solid info on temps for plants.)

I have
7 rasbora hets
2 rainbow fish( that's what the pet store called them don't know any other name for them)
8 Cherry barbs
1 Emerald green Cory
1 Blue Crawdad which has taking a very good liking to the home i built him from some rainbow slate rock.

( I do have my Eye on a giant gold Gourami at this one store He would be the last fish to round out my tank)

I have not been running any CO2 at all. Mostly cause all the stores around me are either big box carry general stuff or small ma/pa places that don't really cater to the odd or expensive items.

I have read on DIY CO2 and I think that is going to be way to inconsistant for me.

So my questions are what is a good system for a 60 gal. and where is a good place online to purchase from that isn't going to break the bank? I'm will to spend around $200-250 maybe more if I need to.

What items do I need to get this going. If someone has a manifest of items they reccomend please pass it my way. So I have an idea of what parts i need if there is no "Kit"

Aquariumsplants.com has a system that they say is one of the best out there, however it's like 500 bucks. 

Also how difficult is this to put together I'm not very mechanically inclined, but I can handle a few things here and there, so are these systems user friendly?

Thanks for any help/advise any one can offer open to learning the ways of a planted tank.

My ultimate goal is to keep plants alive for no less than one year then start learning and ultimatley is get discus. I figure half of that battle is keeping plants alive. baby steps first..


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## Toshogu (Apr 24, 2009)

Eh, so far for my first planted tank, I just selected for low light hardy plants within my parameters, used vermaculite 50/50 sand/gravel mix and stuck everything in. Also using the coralight 4'1/2" dual florecent lightbar that's supposed to be for corals, but works great for plants. Planted everything and dose with Seachem flourish. Java Moss nearly took over till I got rid of all of it. (but still am picking off strays) Dwarf tiger lilly is a beautiful monster. Java moss grows like... moss but steadily. Moss ball is a mossball. had anachris but that was way to prolific. had some bottle brush looking thing but excel melted it. Plants thankfully are pretty easy to take care of so long as you get the hardy ones. For the most part I just buy 2 bunches of plants that I think will go well with the zen of the tank and stick it in. If it survives great, if it doesn't oh well =) Like got mini sword plants last month and just stuck em in the mid ground. They seem to be doing well and staying green.


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## SouthernBelle23 (Mar 24, 2009)

Do you know what color spectrum your bulbs are? If not, are either of them blue? Just making sure the fixture is for planted tanks and not for corals, which could have light that is not as usable to plants.

Its usually cheaper to piece the co2 system together yourself. If you are on a budget, look on ebay for a Milwaukee regulator (MA957). You can usually find one there that comes with tubing and a bubble counter. Get the co2 tank locally if you can, if not, aquariumplants.com has good prices on tanks...just make sure you can find a place locally that will fill your personal tank (as opposed to swapping them out). Other than that, you need a brass check valve, which you can find here: http://www.aquabotanicstore.com/category_s/2.htm. And actually they have the Milwaukee regulator too. The regulator should come with a needle valve. Then you just need a diffuser or reactor to get the co2 into the tank.  Aquabotanic sells those too.

I paid alot more for my regulator and if I ever had to buy another, I'd get that Milwaukee one just because its cheaper and it works fine.

Once you get your co2 running you should look into adding some nutrients to the tank. You could just use regular Flourish (made by Seachem). I would use it every few days. Then you'll want to add some faster growing plants as well, like stem plants. Rotala rotundifolia, Anacharis, and Hornwort are good ones that would grow fine in your lighting.


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