Re: CO2 dissolution

• To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
• Subject: Re: CO2 dissolution
• From: svr at eecs_umich.edu (Steve Robertson)
• Date: Tue, 28 May 1996 11:04:16 -0400

>CO2 does dissolve in water to form H+HCO3-. There is no other way that it
>dissolves, no matter what pressure, no matter what the concentrations.

I don't think that this is entirely true.  My college chemistry book says
that when CO2 dissolves in water, most of it remains CO2 (just like O2
dissolved in water remains O2).  Something like .4% of the CO2 in solution
reacts to form Carbonic Acid (H2CO3) and thus the pH of the water drops.
The rest of the CO2 stays in solution as CO2 and is available to the plants
to use during photosynthesis.  The 0.4% carbonic acid gives us a convenient
pH buffering system in our aquariums, and allows us to guess at how much
CO2 is in solution based on the alkalinity of the water.


Steve in Ann Arbor, where it was 50 degrees and rainy on Memorial Day.  Oh,
gee, it's a good thing they opened the pools this weekend.

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