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too much co2...

Ark

Member
Joined
15 Oct 2007
Messages
136
Location
Hanham Bristol
i was wondering can you ever pump too much co2 into a fishless planted tank

if i dose easycarbo and have pressurized co2 can it have a bad affect on the plants or can they only benifit

as well as dosing tpn+
 
Well, you can add so much CO2 that it drives an uptake demand for NPK that you haven't supplied. If you have unlimited CO2 but limited P for example you can induce GSA. Therefore the more CO2 you add the more of everything else you ought to dose.

You can cause damage with too much Easycarbo but that's a different issue.

Cheers,
 
i thought uptake of nutrients is only influenced by lighting intensity? which determines the required CO2 as well. never thought CO2 drives the uptake of nutrients
 
Yes, its a chain effect. It's referred to as "coupling" because the effects of the addition of one nutrient affects the requirement for another. CO2 is "coupled" to NPK. Light drives CO2 uptake demand which then drives nutrient uptake demand. That's why most of our problems in a planted tank can directly be traced to poor CO2. If there is sufficient CO2 for the lighting level but poor levels of NPK then we can see NPK related algae. Algae appearance which is related to plant health is induced as a function of which nutrient is limited for that lighting level within the chain. EI attempts to avoid NPK limitations within the chain, but it also strives for high CO2 to avoid CO2 limitation. It's no surprise that dosing schemes which feature lower NPK levels (such as PMDD for example) also don't require as much CO2. Check out JamesC's exploits into PMDD here: James's PMDD


Cheers,
 
i have low light btw 1.2wpg two t8's
i am dosing tpn+ with a high level of co2 too high for even harlequin rasboras too survive in

will i have to upgrade my lighitng to balance out my high lvl of co2 and nutrients
 
Well I don't get why you are adding so much CO2. It appears that you are light limited. There is no need to add more light, just add less CO2. Am I missing something? Why increase the light to match the CO2 levels? What problem are you having or what is it that you are trying to accomplish?

Cheers,
 
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