C02 a very must?

[GIMojo]

My cousin put lucky bamboos in her tank and without using any c02 products. the plant has been in there for about 6 months. so is c02 a very must or just for super healthy plants?

also i heard that a lot of oxygen plus c02 can be deadly to plants. I have a bubble wall in my tank and there's a lot of oxygen bubbles. I can see them. they're quite everywhere. if i was to use a c02 product in my tank, would it kill the plants??

 

[Bearfan]

It's required pretty much when you have high light levels. I've had plants both ways, and unless the lighting is high, the difference is minimal.

 

[greenmaji]

Were did you here that alot of O2 and CO2 was deadly to plants? When you have high light and CO2 you wouldnt be using a air pump anymore, surface agitation from it would allow the CO2 to escape.

 

[GIMojo]

air pump was to make my tank look nice.

i was in chat on sunday and someone told me that c02 is deadly when theres lots of oxygen in the tank.

I have pretty powerful lights. does this mean my plants can live w/o c02?

plants wont nessarily DIE if they dont have c02 right?

 

[Apocalypse_Gold]

You generally only need co2 if you are above 2 wpg and you have fast growing plants. The majority of any plants dry weight is from co2 which has been made into cellulose. If you have lots of surface agitation you will lose most of the co2 you add so it will be pointless. If you don't have high light, adding co2 will just empty your wallet and not benefit your plants.

 

[malkore]

Read some of the stickies on this plant forum.

With lighting over 2 watts per gallon, you want CO2.

Whoever told you "too much O2 with CO2 is deadly" knows nothing. O2 saturation of water at tropical water temps (approx 77F) is only about 5ppm. The warmer the water, the less gas it can hold.
CO2 saturation at 77F is in the hundreds of ppm (think about how much carbonation is in soda...that is just CO2 gas in solution, saturated so much you can taste/feel the CO2 coming out of solution!)

Plants don't die without extra CO2 injection...but they will not grow optimally, and eventually (usually very quickly) you'll see algae start to take over all surfaces of the tank, including plant leaves (which can kill the plants). Algae is always caused by a nutrient imbalance...and in high light situations, it's usually because the plants stop taking up nitrate and phosphate because they cannot breathe any CO2 in. Just like humans...if we can't breathe, we really don't worry about eating lunch...respiration is priority #1.
So with all the extra food/nutrients, they quickly build up to 'bad' levels, and fall out of balance at the same time. This is what happens when you see reports of "it looked ok monday, but Tuesday night it looked like 20gallons of pea soup!"

 

[GIMojo]

so i have about 1 wat per gallon, does that mean i dont need c02?

well its time for me to get some algae eaters

anyone recomment a good one?

 

[Jchillin]

1wpg is consider low-light and CO2 is definitely unnecessary. By algae eater, I assume you're referring to Pleco's, oto's and/or cories?

 

[GIMojo]

i was thinking plecos,a dn maybe some of those shrimp thingies. these algae eaters wont eat my baby mollies will they?

 

[greenmaji]

I have never heard of them eating live fish..