# New 3G Tank - Need Some Advise



## Siamesedog (May 12, 2013)

Hey everyone,

I recently bought a 3gal tank from AI and equipment necessary to start up.

Tank has been running for almost 4 weeks now and was planted from the start with HC and some hair grass. cherry's and snails were introduced after the 2nd week; they are very happy.

My problem is the growth of the 2 plants has been very slow-slower then they are melting. What am I doing wrong/can change to help get my carpet on the right foot?

Here's some details and pics:

3 gal rimless
300lph internal filter (ran 50/50 carbon/bio foam for first 3 weeks. Now just bio foam)
24W 6700 T5 (3:00pm-11:00pm) 1" off water level
aqua soil (2" avg.)
first layer fertilizer
1 piece of drift wood from my old tank
appropriate daily dosage of co2 booster
3 cherry's
2 assassin snails

Ammonia: 1ppm
Nitrate: 10ppm

I will occasionally get the white bubbles on the top of my tank and just began noticing algae growth on the driftwood and sides of tank.

I was originally using tap water with conditioner but have recently switched to RO.

I would really like to set up a pressurized co2 system but need to convince the wife first. Would a co2 system significantly help with the plant growth as I have a 'high light' setup?

Initial Setup:



Week 2.5ish:



Today:



Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

if you are using excel, it can be very hard to dose properly for a 3 gallon tank. Too much excel can burn plants, so that might be the problem.

what is your light on time? Normal is 8 to 12 hours on, being quite high light, I'd go with about 8 hours on, plants need to sleep to.

your ammonia is high, how are your nitrites? Nitrates are good though.

I like the setup

A pressurized co2 setup would be good


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## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

Since it's such a small setup a pressurized paintball setup would last you quite a while.
I remember with my 2g spec a 24oz lasted over 1.5 years with a solenoid valve and running at 1 bubble every 3 seconds. I shut down the tank before the co2 ran out. Your HC Cuba don't look that great, were they grown emersed? when you bought it, because if they were and your trying to get it to transition from emersed to submerse without pressurized or even diy sugar + yeast co2 your going to loose most of it to melting and algae.


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## Rigio (Jul 23, 2013)

I agree with the previous posts. 

I've had some bad experiences with liquid co2 booster, I've had vals and other plants melt and i believe the co2 to be at fault. Pressurized co2 is definitely a good place to start, all your plants will benefit from it and should speed up plant growth and lushness. 

Best of luck.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Just fyi, much of the HC that you can buy in store is grown emersed, which is to say, not under water. Many plants grow faster this way so it's more profitable for the nurseries to grow them that way. 

Many water plants will grow both emersed and submersed. The problem arises because leaves growing in air are getting their oxygen from air, while under water they must get it from water. They basically have to grow entirely new foliage to achieve this. 

Quite a few have very different foliage under water than they do grown in air, and you can see that on some if they grow above the tank water level. The leaves in air may look very different from those under water.

So you can lose a great deal of the original plants to melting if they were grown emersed and you put them under water. About the only thing you can do is as coldmantis said, use some form of C02 gas, whether it's from DIY sugar/yeast bottles or a pressurized can of some kind, which will help them adapt faster. 

It's best to use plants that have very well developed root systems, as the roots are more likely to survive and put out new foliage.


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## Siamesedog (May 12, 2013)

Thanks for all your input! I'm on the hunt for a pressurized system. I've had no further luck with the HC, still melting to the point that there might be 20% left of what I had originally planted. The hair grass I noticed is starting to get some runners but is covered in 'hair-like' algae. From the searching I've done this could be due to lack of CO2 in the water. Any thoughts? 

My light is 24W 6700K CF @ 1" above water 3:00pm-11:00pm.

Thanks everyone!


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

co2 helps with algae. If the algae is dark strings, the way I take care of it is double dosing excel for a few days, but this can be hard on some plants, I have had vals take weeks to recover from over dosing excel


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## darkangel66n (May 15, 2013)

My setup uses paintball tank and various parts from my Fluval kit and stuff I bought on eBay. It was easy enough to put together, was cheap to do, but it requires dosing the tank once a day with CO2.


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## Rigio (Jul 23, 2013)

darkangel66n said:


> My setup uses paintball tank and various parts from my Fluval kit and stuff I bought on eBay. It was easy enough to put together, was cheap to do, but it requires dosing the tank once a day with CO2.


Dosing once a day? You don't leave the co2 on while the lights are on?


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## darkangel66n (May 15, 2013)

The system that comes with the Fluval Flora allows you to fill up two chambers with CO2 that are gradually used during the course of the day.


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## Rigio (Jul 23, 2013)

darkangel66n said:


> The system that comes with the Fluval Flora allows you to fill up two chambers with CO2 that are gradually used during the course of the day.


I see, so you fill these two chambers with the paintball canister then it's automatically released into the tank throughout the remainder of the day? Does it use a regulator? Solanoid? How does it work?


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## darkangel66n (May 15, 2013)

In this picture you can see the chamber in the bottom right corner of the tank. http://www.amazon.com/Fluval-Flora-Aquatic-Plant-7-9-gallon/dp/B004AJCE0Q Not really sure how it works but I fill it in the morning and by evening it is filled with water again. I just use the control valve on the paintball tank to slowly fill the dual cylinders in the tank.


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## darkangel66n (May 15, 2013)

I was designed to use little CO2 disposable cartridges but I adapted a 7 oz paintball tank to it.


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## Rigio (Jul 23, 2013)

darkangel66n said:


> In this picture you can see the chamber in the bottom right corner of the tank. http://www.amazon.com/Fluval-Flora-Aquatic-Plant-7-9-gallon/dp/B004AJCE0Q Not really sure how it works but I fill it in the morning and by evening it is filled with water again. I just use the control valve on the paintball tank to slowly fill the dual cylinders in the tank.


Does it use a diffuser? How are your co2 levels


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## darkangel66n (May 15, 2013)

No diffuser. I do not measure the levels but the plants are doing very well.


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