# when to go to co2



## Sheriff Freak (Sep 10, 2004)

Now by a fully planted tank you mean covered in plants??? When im done building my tank i planned on putting plants in it but it i have to rig a co2 system i might not. It will prob be a 150 gallon and id say i would have maybe 5-10 plants would that need a co2 kit and if so what would be the best one to use for the best price...


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## BigChuckP (Feb 9, 2004)

How many fish are you going to have in the tank?


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## channafreak (Mar 27, 2004)

Unless you have 450 watts of light and about four times as many plants you dont need co2. Spend the money on either lighting, substrait or test kits.


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## Sheriff Freak (Sep 10, 2004)

im going to probally have 6 or 7 red bellies, and whats substrait??


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## BigChuckP (Feb 9, 2004)

> im going to probally have 6 or 7 red bellies, and whats substrait??


It is what you line the bottom of the tank with. Such as gravel, sand, peat, whatever else people use.


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## micus (Jan 7, 2004)

NO, for that many plants, u definetly do not need co2, say if u were gonna have like 80-120 plants, and a carpet grass and like like u had 3-4 watts per gallon of lighting then YES, u would need co2, but definetly not in your case,


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## Sheriff Freak (Sep 10, 2004)

awsome thanks for clearing that up


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## buette (May 12, 2004)

to micus 
"u had 3-4 watts per gallon of lighting then YES, u would need co2...."

3-4 watts per gallon, is this a rule for having good plants????


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## micus (Jan 7, 2004)

buette said:


> to micus
> "u had 3-4 watts per gallon of lighting then YES, u would need co2...."
> 
> 3-4 watts per gallon, is this a rule for having good plants????


 no , not necesarily, it all depends on the type of plants you are growing, like most carpet plants like saggitaria, and dwarf hairgrass, and glossotigma need lots of light, and with that like they get tong of growth, but usually in a normal aquarium there isnt enough food for them to keep up with the light, so u then add co2, this provides them with lots of food to keep up with the high light,

now u can go with low light plants that need little light .5-1.5 watts per gallon and u wil rarely need co2 for these plants because they are usually slow growers,

so yeah, basically there is no prefect amount of light for plants in general, but a good rule of thumb is 1 -3 watts per gallon, and even with 3 watts u might need to add co2,

hope that helps,


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