A thought for those of us without CO2

  • Get the NEW AquariaCentral iOS app --> http://itunes.apple.com/app/id1227181058 // Android version will be out soon!

Slick Fork

AC Members
Dec 27, 2005
32
1
0
47
Wild Rose Country
Hi there,

I've been doing some thinking about airstones/surface disturbance etc. and understand why it's a bad thing for those with a CO2 system going but what about those of us without c02 and using excel.

My understanding of surface disturbance is that it speeds up the natural osmotic balance of CO2 between the air and the water.

For example (and I'll use real basic numbers here) If the water in the tank has 25 parts CO2 and the air outside has 50, the surface disturbance will increase the rate that the water bleeds CO2 in its attempt to equalize correct? If so, then this is why having surface disturbance is a bad thing when you are equipped with a co2 system.

So would it not naturally follow that if you do not have a CO2 system set up, the plants will be using every last available ounce of Carbon available to them and in a moderately planted tank they would devour the CO2 at a decent rate. Therefore, the air outside the tank would have a higher saturation of CO2 then the tank and surface disturbance would increase the rate that CO2 is dissolved INTO the water, making it a good thing for those of us without CO2.

Am I out to lunch on this theory, had too many beers..... Tell me what you think!

Cheers
 

ghinksmon

AC Members
Aug 30, 2005
432
0
16
Northern NJ
My chemistry is rusty. We need some one that knows the effects of CO2's affinity for water (or lack of) to help determine which way it would move. A straight mathmatical equilibrium is not necessarily the case.
 

Raskolnikov

AC Members
Jan 2, 2005
1,124
0
0
I recently tried a high-light tank with air driven filters (plenty of bubbles) and no additional CO2. I even stocked mostly emergent vegetation in order to allow the plants to utilize atmospheric gasses in place of dissolved. Results were less than satisfactory.
 

RTR

AC Members
Oct 5, 1998
5,806
0
0
Braddock Heights, MD
CO2 is highly soluble, significantly more so than O2. But CO2 is a very small percentage of air, where O2 is about 20%. Air equilibrium with CO2 yields 2-5 ppm CO2 in the water - that just is not enough for anything other than low-light plantings. It is enough for low light, slow-growth setups.
 
zoomed.com
hikariusa.com
aqaimports.com
Store