Plants & Oxygen

[geemacd]

Hi All,
I have a small 28l tank (go to start somewhere) that has mainly tetra's in it and natural plants (various). I use a stingray filter in there and this takes care of agitating the water top for gas exchange, but I thought I would add in a small air curtain to help increase that and also for the looks.

My question is - to help my plants flourish (they tend to only last a month or so at most), should I switch off the air during the day and only have it on at night or the other way about or doesnt it matter ?

I want to be able to keep the real plants without spending more money every month buying new ones.

TIA GeeMacD

 

[MrWaxhead]

I used to use air stones in my tank for that look before I went planted just for that reason the look. But I found adding co2 and letting the plants do the o2 bubbling looks 110% better. I barely disrupt my surface at all, I just pump in the co2 and the plants give off tons of o2 bubbles and looks so much nicer then the stone route. As the o2 that plants give off, makes beautiful o2 patterns all across the surface, I can sit for hours and what it build and travel across the surface.

 

[jayjay]

it's the surface agitation that gets oxygen into the water btw bubble don't make much difference at all.

 

[MrWaxhead]

Doh I did not see the gas exchange part of his post hehe. That being the case though, I do have very minimal aggitation on my surface, and my fish don't seem to be labouring for o2 in the least. But I am very new to this hole planted co2 o2 exchange thing. So am I doing something wrong? I am putting in co2, and my plants are making tones of o2 that trickles to the surface, I assumed that those floating bubbles would at least in some way leach o2 back into the water for the fish. And as I said my fish don't seem to be short of o2 in the least and I run no stones what so ever. Sorry if I was wrong or misleading to his question, but I do think it looks amazing to a level a o2 pump and stone or curtain could match.

What I have been doing is running my filter at a lower flow in the day during lights on to minimize my agitation, and I turn it up higher at night to ripple the surface while the plants are giving off co2 and to churn up the heap of o2 that built on the surface during the day. Not meaning to highjack this persons thread or give bad advice if I have, but it seems to be working verywell, and I assumed he was going for a look purpose in his tank as well. And I have run various o2 stones and air walls for years before I went planted, and can honestly say, the o2 look plants give off is stunning compared to a stone. I assumed a stone was only needed for gas exchange if you were injecting to much co2 and your plants gave of to much at night, then a stone was needed at night to replentish the o2 levels for your fish and to keep the photosynthesis cycle going. Currently I am putting no o2 in my tank other then what the plants are giving off and the ripple my fitler gives off in my night cycle, and it seems to be working very well.

 

[MrWaxhead]

And to your question of keeping them alive, from what I have read here and the modest results I have gotten on my tank, it seems a balance of light to co2 and a good fert maintence is key. But other members here, would have much better suggestions as to light requirements etc for your tank size etc. I am currently putting 126 watts of light over 29 gallons, I was originally was only putting 40 watts over it with a DIY co2 and the plants grew but did not explode with growth or o2, I slowly upped my lighting over a few phases, and as I did, I also had to add a second bottle for co2 as with that much light algae also started to grow. As soon as I added more co2 the plants took off even stronger and the algae died in a hurry.

I personally started my tank with Cabomba caroliniana, put a few stems in and also Ceratophyllum demersum (hornwort) both of those things took off super fast and grew like mad filling my tank in no time, and I had to cut and dump tones of it along the way. Then I slowly added the plants that I wanted and slowly removed the starter plants as needed. That way I kept a real strong photosynthesis cycle going that left no nutrients for algae, and allowed me to put in nicer long term plants in that were able to start off in a algae free envirment. My tank no longer has any cabomba (it pearled amazing but was way to much maintence, I could top em and leave a four inch head on the bottom, and it would be back at the top with more then one strand within a weeks time) and only a clump in the back of hornwort in the back that I kept as my shrimp love to hang out in it. And if they did not I would have dumped it too, as its a chore, I have to cut off ALOT of it every couple days. The shrimp do like to hang in my java moss too, but for some reason they love the hornwort alot too hehe.