airstones vs co2

[allnatural]

I don't use CO2 or filters or airstones, blah, blah, blah ( I know you've all heard that before ) but my tanks are not running at that high of a temperature. So there is a connection between the temperature and oxygen? My assumption would be at a higher temp animal metabolism increases thus consuming more oxygen or plant growth decreases thus not supplying enough oxygen.

A.A. just curious: Do you know if at that high of a temp, do the plants not grow as well, or is photosynthesis inhibited? Are they not producing enough CO2 to sustain themselves? Do you have charcoal in your filter? Also, now that you are getting the desired plant growth you should be now getting more oxygen. It would be interesting to perform a test and remove the airstone to see if the plants are now providing enough.

Wow, isn't this interesting?

--Tim

 

[focus]

taken my air stone out about 4 hours ok and all good woo hoo
plants are doing well got more rich in colour and it's only been 12 hours after co2

 

[Alien Anna]

So there is a connection between the temperature and oxygen? My assumption would be at a higher temp animal metabolism increases thus consuming more oxygen or plant growth decreases thus not supplying enough oxygen.

A.A. just curious: Do you know if at that high of a temp, do the plants not grow as well, or is photosynthesis inhibited? Are they not producing enough CO2 to sustain themselves?

Do you have charcoal in your filter? Also, now that you are getting the desired plant growth you should be now getting more oxygen. It would be interesting to perform a test and remove the airstone to see if the plants are now providing enough.

Hi, now apart from my slight brain abberration the other day about plants using O2 at night, this is a subject I know (or at least knew) about.

The connection between temperature and O2 is that at higher temperatures, the solubility of gases in water decreases i.e. warm water has less O2. At the same time, fish being cold blooded (exothermic) creatures, their metabolic rate increases and so does their need of oxygen. So your fish are in trouble both ways.

The air-stone won't actually increase the oxygenation of the water if it is saturated. However, I had a slight concern that it might not be saturated due to the type of filter I have, which is relatively poor at oxygenating water (by reputation - I haven't actually had problems myself). The other thing the air-stone does is cause surface aggitation, which leads to evapouration of water, which in turn leads to cooling of the water.

Photosynthesis may also speed up in warmer water, but as with the fish, the need for O2 or CO2 (depending whether it's day or night) also increases. The net effect is probably increased plant growth in terms of height, but possibly spindly or underdeveloped stalks.

However, the main reason my formerly heavily planted tank is now rather pathetic is that my plants died off due to lack of light (I have a 22" deep tank and inadequate lighting - I bought the wrong bulbs) and during my holiday, absolutely no light. I've also used an algaecide a few months back that claimed not to affect plants, but I'm suspicious it may have done so anyway. In addition, I've had a plague of plant-eating snails that are still wreking havoc in my tank - my plan is to make the plants so fast-growing, the snails can't kill them.

My revival plan is:
1. Replace the bulbs and clean up the light-doubling reflectors.
2. Fertilise the plants.
3. Add CO2
4. Kill all wild snails.
5. Try to cool down the tank (probably not possible, due to the location and weather).

 

[allnatural]

Thanks A.A for that info. So at that high of a temp, both the CO2 and the O2 have problems because both are gases. So both plants and fish loose out. Interesting.

Have you ever read "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium"? You seem to understand the science, you would find this book very interesting.

--Tim

 

[revengeishere]

Thanks Anna. so that was the reason my plants were'nt growing/doing poorly even after a month I planted them. I have a new heater, and it has a thermostat, too. I had it set at 78* but the other 2 thermometers register it at 82+ . So I needed to lower the temp on the heater. Anyway, why is that my heater do this?

Thanx in advance,
Revenge

edit:sorry, grammatical errors.

 

[aquamanis]

Goodaye Focus, First off I want to say I,m only new to this aquarium stuff but one thing I do know about it Hydroponics. I,ve been doing it for years and have never had a plant die, some grow slower but I believe after years of trial and error I know how to grow plants in water. I think you could be getting off the track as far as Co2 goes. Sure it may help plants grow faster and bigger but a lack of it is not what is causing your plants to die. If your fish are fine then the water is fine for the plants too. As a guess without knowing your setup, I would say one of the following is not there or in the right amount:
1: Between 8-10 hours of light every 24 hours. (must be a grow tube, usually has a pink or blue tinge, not a white tube) (or even better get a blue and a pink tube as the light spectrums are slightly different)
2: Plants love Oxygen, especially around the roots. Hydroponics people put airstones in with the roots. Its called Aeroponics and the plants love it!
3: Temperature, same again if the fish are happy so are the plants but if you stick the heater into the gravel and heat that or have an underground heater you will see a BIG difference in growth. The plants around my heater where it goes into the gravel are growing quicker and have many more new offshoots that the others.
4: Food, apart from fish waste in a good setup there would not be much else for the plants to feed on so a supplement is needed. I personally like the slow release Hydro tablets made for aquarium plants. Just push a few of these into the gravel near the roots every couple of months. I would also try to where practical to have one plant per fish,(small fish-small plant, large fish-large plant etc) everybody seems happy with this combo.
I could be wrong about the Co2 but I would make sure all the other things are there first. Here is a good site with plenty of great information on Co2 etc: www.thekrib.com/Plants/CO2