[APD] Re: ROE for Lighting and CO2 (S. Hieber)

["Benjamin Hong" <bkhong at rogers_com>]

That is a great help.  Thanks!
B.

------------------------------

Message: 7
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 13:02:07 -0700 (PDT)
From: "S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>
Subject: Re: [APD] ROE for Lighting and CO2
To: aquatic plants digest <aquatic-plants at actwin_com>

The right amount of CO2, for any size tank, can be the
amount that naturally will be in the water -- i.e., not
injecting any and having a slow grow tank. The most you
want, if you want plants to grow faster, even if you do not
add a high amount of light, is about 30 ppm and the optimum
would be clsoer to 15-20 ppm. Bubbles per second is not an
accurate way to determine the CO2 level in your tank unless
you have established, for a given tank, how bubbles per
second relates to the CO2 level in *that* tank. It won't be
the same bubble rate for all tanks, the level being
affected by temperature, amount and kind of plants,
lighting and nutrient levels, rte of CO2 loss/surface
turbulence, etc.

The way to determine the CO2 level, generally, is to
measure the pH and the KH and use the pH/KH/CO2 table. Once
you know that, if you have a bubble counter, you can use
the bubble counter as a losse guide to the CO2 levbel, but
the pH/KH measurements will usually be more accurate,
generally speaking.

Adding CO@ helps the plants grow faster even if you have
only moderate lighting.

You can adjust, to a moderate extent, the amount of CO2
getting into the water when you use the Hagen yeast reactor
and CO2 device. You do this by the number of devices on the
tank (one shold be plenty for 15 gallons) and by how high
or low onthe bubble device you place the tubing outlet.
Experiment, measure the pH and KH and accomodate.

Yeast reactor CO2 methods are not nearly as consistentin
output as are compressed gas systems, so don't expect the
output to be the same everyday between the times when you
refresh/refill the reactor.

Hope that helps,
Scott H.

--- Benjamin Hong <bkhong at rogers_com> wrote:
> On I go with my flurry of questions...
> 
> I have a 15 gal. (US) tank which I am planning on
> planting quite heavily,
> although I have a feeling the lighting provided by the
> current hood I have
> is not going to be enough to support that many plants.  I
> am taking care to
> choose lower light plants as much as possible.  The hood
> supports one 15watt
> T8 fluorescent, and I'm looking around for the right kind
> of bulb that will
> provide the best spectrum coverage.  I'm also lining the
> inside of the hood
> with reflective material to direct as much light as
> possible into the tank
> (instead of into the black plastic).  The tank is 14"
> deep.  Yes, I do plan
> on getting a better lighting strip in the future, but I
> am a not so wealthy
> student...
> 
> As for CO2, how much CO2 is good for a 15 gallon tank? 
> Is it
> bubbles/minute?  I have an aquaclear power filter, so the
> surface turbulence
> is not too high.  I was also thinking of getting the
> Plant-Gro bubble
> counter diffuser, which seems like one of the better
> gadgets out there for
> it and seems to work really well.  Oh, and it's also a
> DIY sugar/yeast
> setup.
> 
> Any ideas or comments would be appreciated by the Nervous
> Newbie!
> Thanks!
> B. (aka N.N.)
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
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> 




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