Hey everyone, well I just got a new compact fluorescent lighting system last week, and already I have begun to see my dying plants begin to grow again. I only have 2 now from the 4 I had before because my Cabombas died for some reason. But I was just wondering how much growth would improve from CO2. Also I was wondering what everyone uses to help their plants grow and thrive??? :mad2 :bowing:
Lighting and CO2 for plants
- Thread starter yzakj
- Start date
If you've got a fair amount of light on the tank with the new fixture, you're going to want to look into CO2, as well as fertilization if you're not already feeding the plants.
I think of nutrients, CO2 and light as three sides of a triangle. When they're in balance, plants grow well and algae is kept to a minimum. If one of the three is lacking, plants won't grow to their potential - whatever's lacking will limit their growth to its level.
High light, high nutrients but no CO2 won't work well (you'd get massive algae blooms, I believe), just like high light and CO2 without enough nutrients won't be successful (without the elements they need to perform photosynthesis and put on new growth, the plants would develop deficiencies and wouldn't grow well).
I'm still learning; keeping plants healthy isn't easy! What I do to keep them happy is read. Obsessively. I read everything I can find on planted tanks - posts here on AC, websites, books, whatever. I learn alot through trial and error, and the plants are, thankfully, very forgiving.
HTH
BTW, just so you know - that little flaming smiley indicates anger!
I think of nutrients, CO2 and light as three sides of a triangle. When they're in balance, plants grow well and algae is kept to a minimum. If one of the three is lacking, plants won't grow to their potential - whatever's lacking will limit their growth to its level.
High light, high nutrients but no CO2 won't work well (you'd get massive algae blooms, I believe), just like high light and CO2 without enough nutrients won't be successful (without the elements they need to perform photosynthesis and put on new growth, the plants would develop deficiencies and wouldn't grow well).
I'm still learning; keeping plants healthy isn't easy! What I do to keep them happy is read. Obsessively. I read everything I can find on planted tanks - posts here on AC, websites, books, whatever. I learn alot through trial and error, and the plants are, thankfully, very forgiving.
HTH
BTW, just so you know - that little flaming smiley indicates anger!
haha I know I just do that sometimes. Thanks for your reply though I never thought of the triangle 
. Well actually I saw online somewhere that plants will grow well with just High light, or will grow well with just CO2, but in another bar of growth High light plus CO2 was far greater than both combined. Now that nutrients goes into the equation I guess you could say it is a triangle.
I was thinking of holding back on getting CO2 because I only have 2 plants, but since I am eventually going to get more plants I think it is best if I just get CO2 sooner than later, is the homemade system using yeast and sugar good?
. Well actually I saw online somewhere that plants will grow well with just High light, or will grow well with just CO2, but in another bar of growth High light plus CO2 was far greater than both combined. Now that nutrients goes into the equation I guess you could say it is a triangle. I was thinking of holding back on getting CO2 because I only have 2 plants, but since I am eventually going to get more plants I think it is best if I just get CO2 sooner than later, is the homemade system using yeast and sugar good?
It works incredibly well for me; it's not as consistant as using a canister, but as long as you change the bottles on a schedule you can keep the amount of CO2 going into the tank steady.