CO2 levels in ponds

[frog girl]

I'm new at this & have both a pond & aquarium. (in summer) Since my pond get plenty of sunlight & enough nutrients from whatever leaves I fail to clean up, my bog gardens & turtles & fish would it be safe to assume that CO2 is the limiting nutrient for plant growth?

Does anyone add CO2 to ponds?? Wouldn't it help the plants produce more oxygen & make the fish happier just like in an aquarium??

 

[boroughmal]

Dear frog girl.
Your fellow writers wont put you right but I will
Co2 is the code for carbon dioxide and we hope you have some in your pond together with your fish. if you have plants in the water they give off co2 and oxygen in cycles(day & night). So the introduction of co2 is done at night time by the plants and visa versa.
The deciding factor for plant growth is Nitrate(fertiliser) which is produced through the natural fish cycle--- Fish introduce ammonia (by product of fish waste) The natural cycle turns the ammonia into NitrIte which in turn feed nitrobacteria who process this into NitrAte.
Feed your fish more--- produce more ammonia--- nitrobacter eat it & out comes more Nitrate The ultimate food for plants.
The natural cycle. The only problem is that this has to be a gradual process or too much Nitrite or Ammonia will kill your fish. If you want to increase nitrate production to make your plants grow Think about a filter system with a very big base for the nitrobactum to grow.
Forget about the co2 someones winding you up.
Regards

 

[frog girl]

No not someone winding me up I was just curious because I just redid my DIY CO2 rig for my aquarium. I have almost no fish but I am sure my turtles do a great job of producing ammonia & my plants will goble that up even if it isn't first transformed to nitrate. Matter of fact they prefer it to either nitrite or nitrate in terms of uptake rate.

I just finally got my CO2 rig going in the aquarium & wondered if I could get similar results with high oxygen output in the pond. In retrospect I think the surface area of the pond probably allows plenty of CO2 to diffuse in. Mostly I want to uptake Phosphorus because that is supposed to be the main reason for a lot of green algae growth as opposed to macrophyte growth. I am planning a vegetative filter to address this. My pond has no biofilter and such a low load (I never feed my fish because I have natives that eat insect larvae etc.) that I don't think it needs one.

Thanks for replying though. I may still try my pond CO2 experiment this summer just to see what happens. I did get some responses on another forum & noone has even heard of someone trying it.

 

[Felf]

i was thinking about that myself. it might work maybe if you place a large bell shaped object in the pond and diffused the co2 that way (ie trash can lid) or a small powerhead with the co2 going directly into the intake. i saw a thread about someone making their own trash can co2 reactor for their very large pond but i can't find it. as long as there's nothing creating constant surface agitation i dont think it'll be a problem.

 

[boroughmal]

I have heard tell that koi keepers building large ponds Have to have the same initially, but that is to build a highly charged environment for colinating new ponds.
If you were starting it would make a diffrence but not when the pond is established, because the natural replacement takes place( there were fish in ponds before there was man) This was also because the eco system took its time to evolve without interference from the master. I still think youn are barking up the rong tree. To enhance any system & make it efficient first flow with the lifegiver---- OXYGEN. Any messing with co2 will have an adverse affect on life itself as co2 when it gets thick (so to speak) condenses into rock.
Just look up co2 emmissions if you think I am wrong.
Regards
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