Can You Use Co2 To Grow A Capet And Then Discontinue Use?

Hi everyone, I am soon rescaping my 20 gallon main tank. I really want to grow a nice thick carpet in my tank, but a full on co2 system will not work within my budget. So I was thinking, the tropica co2 system 60 is very cheap to start with and would fit in my budget if I was only to buy enough cartridges to last a couple months. So, assuming I use low to medium tech carpeting plants, such as s repens, monte carlo etc, will I be able to stop using co2 after the capet has grown in? Like will the plants start to die off without co2, since they will be used to it?

Some other important things to note
- About 70-80 PAR at substrate level
-Tropica aqausoil powder

Last thing, if anyone has used the tropica co2 system 60, please let me know your opinion on it.

Thank you.

 

My intuition tells me you'll have a lot of die-back once you take off the CO2. they would certainly weather the transition much better than plunking an emersed plant right into a no-CO2 tank since they'll be well-established by then, but in my experience, s. repens and other "survive but might not thrive without CO2" types don't do that great once CO2 levels drop. You probbaly won't experience a full meltdown but your carpet might look less dense.

That being said, some people have techniques of "weaning" their aquascapes off of CO2 so that growth slows but meltdowns don't start. I've never tried this method myself but this might be helpful to you.

 

It worked for my dwarf hairgrass in my crystal red shrimp tank. I wouldn't try it with something like Glosso or HC Cuba.

 

So basically, once the carpet that I'm going for has grown, slowly decrease the amount of co2 in the tank, until 0 co2 over the course of a month? Thanks for the video, very informative.

It worked for my dwarf hairgrass in my crystal red shrimp tank. I wouldn't try it with something like Glosso or HC Cuba.

Sorry, what worked for you? Was it the method I just stated or are you talking about the tropica co2 sytem 60? And yes, I wont go for any advanced plants, I will stick to low and medium difficulty.

 

They will thin out. Might have melting and regrowth of thinner less carpeted looking leaves. That sort of thing. Maybe slowing down the CO2 amount over a matter of weeks after you get the initial results you want will help keep them more intact over the long term as long as you provide the ferts and whatnot.

 

They will thin out. Might have melting and regrowth of thinner less carpeted looking leaves. That sort of thing. Maybe slowing down the CO2 amount over a matter of weeks after you get the initial results you want will help keep them more intact over the long term as long as you provide the ferts and whatnot.

So just slow down the co2 very slowly to reduce and most of the die off (hopefully)

 

Yes you can. Taper off CO2 very slowly, as plants take time to adapt to the new situation. A while back on a different forum, someone posted about their small low tech tank with an HC (dwarf baby tears) carpet done through this method.

You have pretty high PAR, which can be used to accelerate growth of plants in low-tech but for the inexperienced usually leads to algae.
If you'd like to explore the CO2-light relationship a bit more here's a good article:
Does having more light in a non CO2 injected planted tank improve growth rates ?

 

Yes you can. Taper off CO2 very slowly, as plants take time to adapt to the new situation. A while back on a different forum, someone posted about their small low tech tank with an HC (dwarf baby tears) carpet done through this method.

You have pretty high PAR, which can be used to accelerate growth of plants in low-tech but for the inexperienced usually leads to algae.
If you'd like to explore the CO2-light relationship a bit more here's a good article:
Does having more light in a non CO2 injected planted tank improve growth rates ?

Thanks for the advice! I actually read that article not too long ago. That website for sure one of my favs for this hobby. Do you think plants such as Monte Carlo, s repens, dwarf hair grass, dwarf Sagittaria, etc will work well with this method? Or any other suggestions?

 

Thanks for the advice! I actually read that article not too long ago. That website for sure one of my favs for this hobby. Do you think plants such as Monte Carlo, s repens, dwarf hair grass, dwarf Sagittaria, etc will work well with this method? Or any other suggestions?

I have done this with monte carlo, drastically mind you because my CO2 system broke. It was fine but grew more leggy after that. The others I would imagine follow the same pattern

 

Sorry, what worked for you? Was it the method I just stated or are you talking about the tropica co2 sytem 60? And yes, I wont go for any advanced plants, I will stick to low and medium difficulty.

Using CO2 until the carpet is established, then discontinuing CO2.