I have been thinking about how we grow plants in aquariums particularly the high tech approach and CO2.
Lighting I get. Direct sunlight, particularly in the tropical locals from which a lot of our plants come, is much more intense than what we typically would put over a fish tank. Also, the fact that most of our aquarium plants can grow emersed suggests that they grow in relatively shallow water where the light can penetrate easily.
Fertilization also makes sense. For the most part, our drinking water doesn't contain the number of nutrients that stream water picks up and as it does continually change over quick growing plants would quickly strip the water of those nutrients it does contain.
CO2, on the other hand, has me a bit baffled. I began with the premise that the plants we are trying to cultivate are in waters that are in balance with the atmospheric concentrations of CO2. So, why do we inject CO2 rather than have sufficient surface agitation to off-gas excess O2 and absorb CO2?
This led me to think: Are we, in high-tech aquariums, trying to grow plants faster than they would normally grow in the wild? Is this why we need to use CO2?
I would love the thoughts of those who are more familiar with growing plants in high-tech setups.
I'll take a stab at this,it may not be correct but it's my understanding and the way I approach p,wanted tanks.
I think you are correct that most of the plants we keep are found in shallow or relatively shallow waters and in many cases emersed.
Although it's quite difficult to replicate the intensity of sunlight in our small tanks ,our lights over our aquariums are much closer to the plants and we have the ability to control the intensity.
We can introduce as much agitation as we want, once atmospheric equilibrium is attained , no higher co2 concentration can be achieved.
[quoteAre we, in high-tech aquariums, trying to grow plants faster than they would normally grow in the wild?][/quote]
In the wild the waters are rich in CO2 Saturation due to the decaying litter etc and as mentioned the emersed plants are grabbing it from the atmosphere where it`s in abundance .
So yes , if our lights are high intensity to push the plants to grow at such a rate that the natural tank environment cannot keep up with the required carbon to sustain the growth rate , we need to supplement by injecting CO2.
Hope this makes sense :D
Thanks Charlie.
That basically jives with my gut feelings on what we are trying to accomplish along with observing natural streams.
"In the wild the waters are rich in CO2 Saturation due to the decaying litter etc"
So if we allowed plants and whatnot to decay in abundance, would it help?
Quote from: ksj on November 20, 2017, 12:23:54 AM
"In the wild the waters are rich in CO2 Saturation due to the decaying litter etc"
So if we allowed plants and whatnot to decay in abundance, would it help?
Within reason -,yes " in abundance" no - , keep in mind our tanks are a small controlled environment compared to nature, the Walstad method is along these lines.
Regards
Just to add to the discussion, I inject CO2 not just for the faster growth but also for greener, lusher, more colourful, and healthier plants. Faster growth and healthier plants will also mean less algae. Also, in the wild the plants have a many different sources of carbon available which aquariums don't have, so to make up for the deficiency of carbon sources we inject CO2.
Quote from: exv152 on November 20, 2017, 12:44:30 PM
Just to add to the discussion, I inject CO2 not just for the faster growth but also for greener, lusher, more colourful, and healthier plants. Faster growth and healthier plants will also mean less algae. Also, in the wild the plants have a many different sources of carbon available which aquariums don't have, so to make up for the deficiency of carbon sources we inject CO2.
Faster growth is highly dependent on light intensity, co2 in good supply just supports the fast growth, in other words plants will grow as fast as the light pushes it to, not enough carbon to support the growth the plant growth will be unhealthy which will trigger a series of issues including algae..........