Advice for nephew's science project

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chkltcow

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Today my nephew called me asking if I would help him with his science experiment. His teacher had suggested doing something related to growing plants. What she suggsted was plant growth using chlorinated water versus dechlorinated water for daily watering.. using normal house plants. Personally, I don't think there's gonna be much of a difference in that.... not enough water every day to make any huge difference in growth. So, I suggested since he's fascinated by my aquarium that he do an experiment for plant growth with CO2 injection vs. plant growth without. As another part of the experiment, perhaps he could also explain the way our DIY CO2 rigs work, how the yeast breaks down the sugar solution to create CO2 and alcohol. So, check what I'm thinking here and tell me if you think this will work, please.

For the container, some type of moderately tall plastic container, like a rubbermaid or tupperware type thing, perhaps about 2 gallons or so if possible.
For the substrate, either the cheapest bag of fine gravel the pet store has, or sand... if you think anything would grow in it.
For the lighting, I have a dual tube 24" flourescent utility light that I had intended to put up in my garage, but will donate to him for a few months for his experiment if need be. I can make a simple wood frame to hold it up over the two containers to provide even light over both of them to light them evenly.
For the plants, the Petsmart around here ALWAYS has amazon swords in stock, but those probably get too big for the containers we'll have. I'd love to do crypts, but it would be hard to find two crypts of the same type at Petsmart, let alone two of a similar size.
And fertilizer, I would tell him to use a few drops of Flourish weekly. In a small container like that, it wouldn't take much... and a dropper would be the most accurate way to measure something that small.

So advise me here. I'm trying to keep this as cheap as possible. Is the 40 watts from the 2 24" tubes gonna be enough light so that light is not the limiting factor, and CO2 is? Will the crypts grow in sand? (cheapest and most readily available substrate choice... his dad can bring home a bucketfull from work for free... construction company has huge mounds of sand for concrete mix) If not crypts, what other plant would you suggest that would show the differences in growth between injected and non-injected growth? I only chose crypts because I know what a drastic difference I saw in growth after adding CO2 to my main tank... and they're beautiful plants beyond that. Most would stay small enough to not outgrow whatever size container we end up with. The only other things that I know are readily available at PetSmart are Cabomba and Bacopa plants, and I don't really have experience with either. Is there anything blatantly wrong in my planning, or something you plant gurus would do different? Heck, I got excited when he told me he'd like to do something like this for an experiment, because I know he's fascinated by my aquariums. :)
 
Looks good for the most part. If you can find some Crypt Wendtii of any kind those will probably work the best (at least they would for me), I can't kill them. There will be a lot of charts and water testing and so on and so forth for this project to make it a "compleate" project. I wouldn't do this project for any time less than 3 months longer will be better. At the 3 month mark you should have enough growth difference and enough info to beable to get the general idea across on the difference between CO2 added and not added. I would also put in more than 1 plant into each tank just in case it should die then your experement won't go bust. May seem like over kill but trust me it happens a lot more than people think.

One thought I just had is in regards to the trace elements and water changes. The plants will need some kind of "nutrition" during this experement. Flourish is a excellent way of doing it however you will need to add this slowly and over a set amount of time during the week. It could be 1-2 drops a day or every couple of days only way to know how much is enough is by watching your plants. YOu'll need to add the same amount to both plants tanks. Another thing is your more than likely to run into algae during this experiment. I'd be willing the wager it'll be found in the non CO2 plant tank. So you will need to figure out how to deal with that without compromising the experiment. As for the water changes you will need to take the same amount of water out of each tank on the same day. You will need to use water conditioner as well.

I think 40watts of light is over kill on this project, especially for 2 2gal tanks. That much lighting my have an effect on the plants you don't want. It may kill the plants or they won't grow they way they should if at all despite the CO2. You will need to take that into consideration. If you can get a couple of desk lamps and put in a couple of the screw in compact florescent lights. I think those would work much better than the 40watts light. People use the screw in lights on 10g tanks so a 2g tank would be no problem.

There are some other things that I thought of but can't post right now. Running out the door to go fishing with my dad. I will post those later tonight or tomorrow. Sorry for the long post, I kinda get excited with things like this. I got 3rd in state in the 6th grade for this project (one real close to it...lol). Mine was a bit more elaborate than what you are trying to do I'm sure...lol. If I don't repost by tomorrow rememind me.

Rose
 
It looks good! How old is your nephew, how complicated does this have to get? You could also get a cheap testing kit and see how CO2 affects the water, in terms of PH and hardness etc. I've also seen a formula somewhere for finding out the CO2 concentration in the water through dividing the PH by the hardness, or something like that! i will try and find it for you. In my experience, teachers like lots of tables and graphs as well as conclusions, and of course, don;t forget the weekly photos of each container and plants to put in the report! Maybe mark the outside of the containers in inches so it's easy to see how much the plants have grown? Damn, I'm getting excited too! Let us know how it goes!

Sarah
 
This is a very wordy article, but there might be some useful stuff in it, and towards the end there is a chart for determining your CO2 level. Hope it helps.

Sarah
 

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