Pressurized CO2 Casualty

[Mgamer20o0]

well its just like everything its a balance keeping it on isnt going to make them all look great. for me is i change the timer around at times. my lights and co2 and plugged in different areas so i would have to change two things. co2 is cheap i didnt want to worry about it. so now its left on. i also watched my fish and co2 levels. this is why a drop checker is great for tanks. its a visual aid to help. i am not saying dont turn it off i am just saying it isnt a must. great thing about tanks there are more then one way to do things.

 

[Star_Rider]

shutting it off at night reduces the risk ..you can also balance it out and be safe too.

many use pH readings to keep the balance on CO2..others use solenoids to turn the CO2 off at night. some add airstones to the tank which turn on at night

 

[247Plants]

CO2 saturation and O2 saturation are completely separate of each other, you can have high levels of both in the water.

 

[jmhart]

CO2 saturation and O2 saturation are completely separate of each other, you can have high levels of both in the water.

They aren't completely separate. They are generally seperate. I found a paper detailing how at high enough levels, they start effect each other.

However, for ranges we typically deal with, they are independent.


It is possible, and easy, to raise co2 levels to a level that is toxic to fish. This is what happend in my tank I believe.

 

[Mgamer20o0]

from what i remember.... its not that its toxic it just starts to replace the o2 in the water. you end up suffocating them. thats why you can see them gasp for air.

 

[Notophthalmus]

It's not the replacement in the water you have to worry about- CO2 competes with oxygen for attachment to hemoglobin, so if there is a lot of CO2 in the atmosphere the organisms can asphyxiate, even if plenty of oxygen is also available.

Plants, like animals, require oxygen all the time; its just that when they are photosynthesizing they are putting out more O2 than they are consuming. Most plants only take in CO2 in the daytime when they are photosynthesizing. Some plants can take in CO2 at night and store it until they need it; most of these are desert plants like cacti and crassulas, as this allows them to close their pores during the day to conserve water, but there are also some aquatics that use the same method to avoid competition for CO2 with other plants; the only one I can think of is a quillwort (Isoetes spp.), but there may be others. I've never seen Isoetes for sale, though.