Does a wet/dry filter ruin my chances

[Sky042]

I have a wet/dry amiracle filter along with my cannister on my 54G corner bow.
I heard that because of the oxygenation that happens that I won't be able to grow plants in my 54. Is this true?
I don't want dense planting just a few maybe 5 plants total throughout the tank.

Heres a picture lemme know if it's possible and if so what might work with the scheme of the tank

 

[Boxcar Muzzdogg]

Of course you can use a wet-dry filter. There is naturally both Oxygen and CO2 in the atmoshpere. At the same time that a filter is oxygenating water, it is also adding CO2.

Thats a nice lookin tank.

 

[Vivienne]

I love the background you have. Is it something outside the tank ?

 

[jimbooo]

i could answer that either way to be honest.

the reason it's a problem is CO2 is not very soluble. for a proper planted tank you will need to inject co2 (pressurised or yeast method) co2 will need to be at around 20-30ppm for plants to flourish. this dissolved co2 will come out of the water with any kind of agitation hence why you dont use airstones in a planted tank, it's not the air/oxygen that causes the problem it's the surface agitation.

that's if your trying to get a fully planted tank however. plants will only use this quantity of co2 if light is of a high intensity (above 2.5 watts per gallon)

if you have standard lighting you could grow a few live plants as long as you choose slow growing (low light) plants they can live quite happily in a standard tank without co2.

typical examples are java fern, java moss, anubias, some crypts etc...

so yes you could have a few plants but not a fully planted tank.

hope that makes sence

 

[kenneth_kpe]

c02 does not displace oxygen and neither does oxygen BUUT i think c02 diffuses out of the water faster...

so with high light and highly planted tanks c02 injection is a must to keep the c02 PPM at a desirable level.

The problem with some filters like hobs or sumps is that they tend to splash the water around and thus causing the c02 to dissipate faster into the air... but there is always a solution to a problem

i use a hob on my planted tank and i merely fitted a foam on the overflow part of the hob to reduce surface agitation

hope this helps somebody correct me if im wrong

 

[jimbooo]

yep thats right basically with no surface movement co2 will stay in solution, the more agitation you have the faster it will be lost.

 

[George Farmer]

I don't want dense planting just a few maybe 5 plants total throughout the tank.

Then your filter will be fine.

The wet and dry aspect is only a problem due to CO2 loss through agitation. With only a few plants you won't need the high CO2/light levels that heavily planted set-ups depend on. After all, if the worst happens and your plants die after a while, it won't break the bank replacing them.

Nice tank BTW.

 

[Sky042]

Thanks.
I went out this morning but there were no Java Fern's at my LFS.

I have 2 30" single light strips on that tank to bring the lighting up a bit.

I almost kinda like it without plants but since I'm going for that river bottom look I'll need some sparse planting.

I also turned down the wet/dry a bit(put in a smaller sump pump) so the situation may not be that bad now.