farmerhoggers
Fish Fanatic
Hi, does anyone know if its ok to feed co2 to plants during a fishless cycle?
Co2 During Cycling.
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TwoTankAmin
Fish Connoisseur
Yes, it is fine. The nitrifying bacteria need inorganic carbon to function.
I've moved the vast majority of the replies into a separate thread for further discussion.
Feeding CO2 during a cycle will not hinder the growth of the bacteria in any way, other than lowering the pH, which will decrease the growth rate of the bacteria... but on the positive side, it will increase the amount of inorganic carbon available to the bacteria which will help them grow. So, I don't think there would be an appreciable difference one way or the other in terms of that.
As pointed out in the split posts, plants do use ammonium (NH4), while bacteria use ammonia (NH3). There's a balance between these two based upon the pH of the water. Higher pH pushes more to the NH3 side, which I believe (but can't prove) is why the bacteria thrive more in higher pH levels (well, that and higher pH often occurs with higher kH, which provides more inorganic carbon). Lower pH pushes more to the NH4 side, which I believe would have a converse effect on the bacteria.
Either way doesn't really matter, as either the ammonia or ammonium is consumed by either plants or bacteria, the pH will dictate the conversion of one to the other, keeping the same balance.
To get into that very briefly... imagine that you have 2ppm ammonium/ammonia at an even 50/50 split.
1ppm is ammonium while 1ppm is ammonia.
Let's say that the plants are taking up the ammonium and manage to use it all in a 24 hour period. At the end of the 24 hour period, you wouldn't have 0 ppm ammonium and 1ppm ammonia. Instead to make a total ammonium/ammonia reading, the RATIO would remain exactly the same and you would have 0.5ppm ammonium and 0.5ppm ammonia.
As long as your pH is sitting somewhere between 6.5 and 8.0, you'll have a little bit of both forms of ammonia, and either the plants or the bacteria will have what they prefer and will be able to lower the ammonia levels that way.
If the plants use it up, then the nitrites will never be visible. If the bacteria do it, they will produce nitrite - and then another bacteria specie eventually produce nitrate.
Feeding CO2 during a cycle will not hinder the growth of the bacteria in any way, other than lowering the pH, which will decrease the growth rate of the bacteria... but on the positive side, it will increase the amount of inorganic carbon available to the bacteria which will help them grow. So, I don't think there would be an appreciable difference one way or the other in terms of that.
As pointed out in the split posts, plants do use ammonium (NH4), while bacteria use ammonia (NH3). There's a balance between these two based upon the pH of the water. Higher pH pushes more to the NH3 side, which I believe (but can't prove) is why the bacteria thrive more in higher pH levels (well, that and higher pH often occurs with higher kH, which provides more inorganic carbon). Lower pH pushes more to the NH4 side, which I believe would have a converse effect on the bacteria.
Either way doesn't really matter, as either the ammonia or ammonium is consumed by either plants or bacteria, the pH will dictate the conversion of one to the other, keeping the same balance.
To get into that very briefly... imagine that you have 2ppm ammonium/ammonia at an even 50/50 split.
1ppm is ammonium while 1ppm is ammonia.
Let's say that the plants are taking up the ammonium and manage to use it all in a 24 hour period. At the end of the 24 hour period, you wouldn't have 0 ppm ammonium and 1ppm ammonia. Instead to make a total ammonium/ammonia reading, the RATIO would remain exactly the same and you would have 0.5ppm ammonium and 0.5ppm ammonia.
As long as your pH is sitting somewhere between 6.5 and 8.0, you'll have a little bit of both forms of ammonia, and either the plants or the bacteria will have what they prefer and will be able to lower the ammonia levels that way.
If the plants use it up, then the nitrites will never be visible. If the bacteria do it, they will produce nitrite - and then another bacteria specie eventually produce nitrate.
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