[APD] RE: Water changes, CO2 tanks, and non CO2 tanks

["Thomas Barr" <tcbiii at earthlink_net>]

> Hi Tom Barr,

> > I thought it was well water and pumped out. Now it's in an open tower?
> > Or did I miss that part?(Entirely possible)

> No you were right the first time, I have well water. No towers.
> So it appears my well water has 33.362 ppm CO2 out of the cold tap and
> slightly less, 30.286 ppm CO2, when mixed with hot to 75 F.
> The next step is to sample the aquarium water immediately after my 50%
water
> change and find out exactly how much CO2 the plants are actually seeing.
If
> anyone is interested, tell me and I can let you know then.
> -- 
> Thanks for everyone's help,
> Bob Zink

Told ya all.
So what do we learn from water changes???????????

That often times that if you see dramatic increases in pearling it's
primarily due to the CO2 rich water in the tap.
That's an easy sign to show you that the plants could be grown healthier
and at faster growth rates than they are if you have not seen this type of
growth during the other times of the week.

So does this temporary high level of CO2 harm fishes? No.
Does it tell you that you can/should add more CO2? Yes.
It might mean you need PO4 also. CO2 and PO4 are the main components that
will cause intense pearling after a water change as well as O2 levels which
are also high in well water/tap often times(But nowhere near the CO2
increases).  

What happens if you add lots of CO2 for one day and then not for the rest
of the week on a non CO2 planted tank? This is why you don't do water
changes on a non CO2 planted tank => plants(and algae) get acclimated to
low CO2. Doing frequent water changes is counter productive on a non CO2
tank.It helps the algae initially as the CO2 levels bob up and down each
week. 

Both plants and algae take about a week to reacclimate to low or high CO2
levels. 
Algae, at least some species, appear to be faster at this.

This explains the lack of water changes improving the non CO2 tanks while
explaining why CO2 methods are conducive to large frequent water changes.
Other mechanisms are at play here, but this is certainly one of the main
ones at least about the water change differences in the routines.


Regards, 
Tom Barr


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