Cool project and concept! I'll be following along too.
Thanks!
Good news too looked at the small strand of caulerpa I all ready have and see some new green on it, so perhaps turning the corner.
Cool project and concept! I'll be following along too.
Surface skimming on a closed loop, with an inline heater-sounds like a cool idea!
I have tried some carbon dosing, both with bio pellets and with vinegar dosing. I'm not sure it is helpful for planted tanks. It seems more applicable for reef tanks, I think. The concept makes sense-boost carbon, so nitrate and phosphate get taken up more quickly. But plants' preferred form of carbon is CO2, so I run CO2 through an external canister filter that I can try different combinations of media in. Currently, I'm running calcium reactor media in mesh bags, so I get CO2 for the plants as well as calcium for them. I have several plants that need lots of calcium, plus I get good coralline algae growth as well.
Like a lot of folks, I got an uptick of cyano bacteria with CD. I think it works best in well established tanks, rather than new ones.
I hope I'm not discouraging you. I just wanted to share my experience and thoughts. Consider a canister filter/CO2 setup for happy plants. My two cents"¦
In theory, carbon dosing would benefit plants. But plants greatly prefer CO2, rather than other forms of carbon. All aquatic plants are carbon limited, so when they have access to more carbon, they take up more nitrate and phosphate, and grow faster. So it wouldn't compete with plants.
Activated carbon does compete with plants, by adsorbing DOC (dissolved organic carbon). So it is not recommended for planted tanks, except for special, temporary situations, like removing harmful compounds.