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Ok, I got confused on what was being said on the thread about moonlight and why co2 during the day and airstone/pump i am assuming would cancel eachother.

So the question I pose is this, "Does using a CO2 injection not work as well? Or does it cancel eachother out? Or is it ok to use both?

Sorry for the silly question I just worry that the fish may not have enough air if I remove the pumps, and I also dont want the plants do do poorly or die.

MQW

To put it simply: water surface motion exchanges CO2 for oxygen. So the more surface movement you got the more oxygen you´ll have (and the less CO2), as with so many other things you´ll have to compromise.

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So here I am once more...

Can the plants generate enough O2 for the fish? Maybe I should get an O2 test kit to make sure I have enough for them


Last edited by mrwizerd at 24-Nov-2005 15:10

If you have a lot of plants compared to fish then they would generate enough. In most tanks, on the other hand, they won´t. But, since we usually have some kind of filtration on our tanks we move the water around a lot and thus get surface motion (just try to prevent it).

I believe most people who add CO2 keep filters and stuff going just as they would if they didn´t add CO2 and hope that the addition will be enough to help the plants.
Í don´t knowof any test kits for oxygen measuring and if there are any they would probably be quite expensive. There are probobly nothing esier to notice in a tank than a lack of oxygen; all the fish will be swimming close to the surface and quite a few species will be gulping air and swallow it.

Give us some more info on your tank; size, water parameters, stocking, plant density, CO2 injection, filter type... and maybe someone better suited than me can tell you what to do.

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So here I am once more...

Hi,
The use of an air pump and air stone in a tank that is
also using injected CO2 has been argued many times over.
Some turn the CO2 off at night rightly figuring that about
an hour after the lights are turned off the plants switch
from producing O2 to consuming it. Thus turning off the
CO2 for the lights out hours conserves CO2 and makes a
tank of it last a little longer.

Others, once the needle valve is set to provide just the
right amount of CO2 to maintain a given pH don't want to
turn off the CO2 and leave it running 24/7.

Amano in all of his planted tanks runs CO2 for a period
of time during the lights on phase, and runs an air pump
and stone for the remaining hours.

If your CO2 saturation is 30mg/l and below, you really
won't need to worry about it. THE KEY is to note the
fish early in the morning just before the lights come
back on. If they are gasping at the surface, then the
CO2 saturation is too high and you should either shut it
off at night, or run an airstone during the lights out
time.

Personally, once I got the system adjusted to maintain
a given pH, I was not about to turn off the CO2 and then
have to readjust the needle valve all over again the next
day. That initial adjustment was an all day task adjusting
it just a "tad" each hour and then fine tunning it the
remainder of the week. Besides a 5 pound recharge only
costs $9 and some change and lasts over 7 months.

Frank

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Ok, my 29 gallon has a desent ammount of plants enough to cover the entire back plus a bit of forground stuff not a ton yet but they are growing. I Am running an air stone and DIY co2 24/7 and cant turn off the co2 easily it is being plummed directly into the in intake above the impeller of the Aquaclear 50 and Aquaclear 150 in the 27. The 27 has a smaller ammount of plants but it to has air stones running 24/7 The 29 has lots of tetra mostly and cory 6 to be precise. I think that I will turn off the air stones during the day then.

Thanks for the help guys