# Anyone with experience using CO2 liquid or tablets?



## Blue Fish (Jun 11, 2012)

Anyone ever use the liquid CO2 or CO2 tablets? I've read that plants will grow much, much faster with the addition of CO2, but with so many tanks, I really don't want to purchase a separate CO2 diffuser for each one. 

So, thought this might be an option? 

Any experience?


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## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

I don't have experience with it, but I have seen reports of liquid co2 (Seachem Excel) melting val's and some other plants.


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## peachii (Jan 6, 2013)

I use excel daily or every other day in all my tanks. Mostly to just fight algae. So far I haven't melted any vals or moss but it does help control the algae very nicely so far. We don't use Co2 in any tank we have, to expensive for all that equipment but we may give DIY Co2 a shot sometime in the future. I really like that we don't need it to grow healthy plants.

I do not use anything, ferts or excel, in my shrimp tank though. And I have one moss only tank that I don't dose either.


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## rickey (Jul 7, 2013)

If you have high light then you may need CO2 or a CO2 supplement otherwise save your money

Rick


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## Blue Fish (Jun 11, 2012)

What is the difference between flourish and excel? I use flourish right now, but I only dose it once every 2-3 weeks, per the instructions on the package. Should I be using it more often? 

Should I use it more often? Is it also adding liquid CO2 already? 

Also, is the Flourish safe for anachris? I just bought a ton of it in different forms, and I'd really hate to melt it.  

I really don't know what my light output is...the tanks are all 20 longs, so they're only about 12 inches deep, and I've got two fluorescent clip-on lamps, one on each end with 100 watt flourescents in them, on for 12 on/12 off, with the overhead room lights on for about the same amount of time. 
Most of my plants are "hardy low light", but I do have some red ludwigia that grows well, and I know it's a "higher" light plant. Beyond that, I know there's kelvins and joules and depth to light ratios...and so many other things I've never taken the time to really understand.  This a hobby for me...if things are growing and not dying, I figure I'm in business, but it also means that I'm not very well educated as to how much light my stuff is getting in terms of measurements.


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## PunkinOfSteel (Aug 24, 2013)

I have been using API liquid C02 in my 10 for the past couple months.. I literally have seen 0 change in plant growth.


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## fishkid (Jul 29, 2008)

Flourish is pretty much just trace elements while Excel is a liquid CO2 substitute. I use Excel on my betta tank and it works well. My riccia and moss aren't adversely affected. Vals also aren't really that harmed by Excel.

If you already have a regulator and the tanks are close together you could use a splitter. Aquatek makes a 3 way one but I've seen up to 10 ways before.


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## rickey (Jul 7, 2013)

I stopped dosing anything on my betta tanks it just complicates the water chemistry in small nano tanks in my opinion. I like low maintenance EZ to grow plants. No algae don't have to mess with a bunch of chemicals just do my water changes once aweek. I do add a few drops of Fleet Enemaat water changes more out of habit that necessity 

Rick


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## Blue Fish (Jun 11, 2012)

Ahh, thanks guys, good to know. I haven't dosed one of the tanks in months with anything just because the ludwigia and the wisteria that were in there (just a couple in there right now, it's still mostly silks) were looking good, but I'd wondered if I started adding more plants if I'd need to dose more frequently with the flourish. I've had a set up with a 10g "holding" tank that is just plants that I've been dosing pretty regularly with the flourish, and did my first fish-living NPT 20g long two days ago, haven't dosed it with anything yet, that was the one I was really wondering about. Good to know, I'll see what happens with just fishy waste as fertilizer for now.  

Thanks for the info about the dividers on the CO2, but unfortunately my tanks are in different rooms. I suppose it's possible to have lots and lots of tubing running around, but it might make vacuuming a tad difficult, lol! Thanks for the suggestion though, it was worth a shot, and I'll keep it in mind if I ever get everyone in the same space.


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