- Messages
- 15
- Location
- Santa Barbara, CA
Hi all, I'm trying to maintain a planted tanganyikan tank with little success. Even before every surface of my tank was covered with nasty brown algae, my plants were dying off. I only have ~1W/g of lighting, but this is eventually subject to change. For the meanwhile I'm going to try to stick to low-light plants. I have several Jungle Val in there now, and a single anubias.
Anyhow, back to my question -- once CO2 becomes a limiting factor in my aquarium (i.e. when i get better lights), is there any way to increase the CO2 while still maintaining the high pH (~8) that keeps my tangs happy? Looking at some of the charts from thekrib.com, it looks like the only way to have a pH of 8 and a CO2 that even approaches a normal non-injected tank is to have sky-high kH. Am I just SOL if I want both plants and african cichlids?
If it matters, my fish currently consist of some multi's, a pair of leleupi, and a handful of danios. Eventually the danios will be displaced by cyprichromis, and I might add some julies, but that will be the extent of the fish.
Anyhow, back to my question -- once CO2 becomes a limiting factor in my aquarium (i.e. when i get better lights), is there any way to increase the CO2 while still maintaining the high pH (~8) that keeps my tangs happy? Looking at some of the charts from thekrib.com, it looks like the only way to have a pH of 8 and a CO2 that even approaches a normal non-injected tank is to have sky-high kH. Am I just SOL if I want both plants and african cichlids?
If it matters, my fish currently consist of some multi's, a pair of leleupi, and a handful of danios. Eventually the danios will be displaced by cyprichromis, and I might add some julies, but that will be the extent of the fish.