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Re: air/tank CO2
Jason Miller writes:
> My educated guess would be that the CO2 was probably driven off pretty
> quickly, and now instead of CO2 escaping the water, it is now dissolving
> into the water to create equilibrium with the partial pressure of CO2 in
> the air.
Actually I believe the answer is much simpler: the airstone is increasing
the amount of oxygen in the water, mostly by surface agitation. This brings
the water that much closer to oxygen saturation, and the plants can quickly
bring it the rest of the way and start releasing excess oxygen as bubbles.
I can get my CO2-free tank's plants to bubble just by increasing the
surface agitation from the filter. If bubbling plants are your only goal,
this is fine - but the bubbles don't mean they're growing as quickly as
they were with CO2.
I don't think you can increase CO2 concentration by much with surface
agitation. The maximum amount will be the same percentage as the air has,
and the normal levels of CO2 we use are higher than that... aren't they?
--
michael moncur mgm at starlingtech_com http://www.starlingtech.com/
"Your theory is crazy, but it's not crazy enough to be true."
-- Bertold Brecht