Plants+fish Balance

[ziggyboy]

My common sense is telling me that ideally there should be a balance between the number of fish and plants in a tank...some sort of equilibrium. Plants need oxygen and produce CO2 while the fish vice versa. How would I be able to tell if I have enough fish to provide CO2 for plants? I would prefer not to put additional CO2 so this would mean having a tank not too heavy on plants. Here's my setup:

4-foot 55 gallon tank
40W 100,000K bulb
Inhabitants/plants: none yet, still fishless cycling :thumbsup:

Thanks in advance.

 

[nry]

I may be wrong, probably not on this one, but to get 30ppm CO2 from fish is possibly impossible? CO2 levels generally have nothing to do with O2 levels, so increasing one does not mean you end up decreasing the other.

 

[SuperColey1]

nry is right. The amount of CO2 given off by even a very heavy fishload will be nominal. There will be more CO2 in the fresh tap water you put in (I would think).

Therefore whatever fishload you have, if you are going the CO2 route then you will definately need to inject.