A Quandry

[The-Wolf]

hi all you plant experts.
how best to explain this....
hmm lets see...

ok in my 42G subtropical tank that houses danios only
I have a very fast flow and lots of aeration, giving the danios a great environment.
however this is not great for plant growth.
the tank has a weir so I was thinking of putting the airstone in the weir rather than in the
main part of the tank.
this would have the effect of not having loads of micro bubbles flowing around the tank
but still agitating the water volume just over a smaller area.
do you think this will effect in any way the plant growth?

I've just re-read that and it makes sense to me, but then again I know what I'm on about

 

[Miss Wiggle]

I've just re-read that and it makes sense to me, but then again I know what I'm on about

makes sense to me, got no idea what the answer is but your making sense at least! lol

 

[George Farmer]

Surface agitation in a non-CO2 tank makes no difference, in fact the more surface agitation the better....

 

[The-Wolf]

Surface agitation in a non-CO2 tank makes no difference, in fact the more surface agitation the better....

so what you are saying is it will make no difference whatsoever?

 

[George Farmer]

Not that you'll notice for plant growth.

CO2 from CO2 injection is easily lost through surface agitation, so you'd notice in a CO2-enriched tank.

But CO2 already in the water in a non-CO2 injected tank is around 3-4ppm. By agitating the surface you're actually enabling CO2 from the air to diffuse into the water. There's an article on this somewhere on the web. I'll try to find it.

Plants like flow too, providing they're not getting blown about silly.

FYI I have plenty of surface agitation, even though I inject CO2. This ensure O2 is good, especially at night. Sure I go through a bit more CO2 to compensate but at £10 for 2Kg (12 months worth), it's not expensive. CO2 with poor O2 is very bad indeed.

Hope that helps.

 

[The-Wolf]

ok, thanks George