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Re:"Wonder Water", O2 stauration, etc...
Jim Kostich wrote:
>I'm still trying to grasp what I few others have been trying to explain
>about "partial pressures" and such, but it seems to me that I've frequently
>heard plant gurus state that carbon dioxide is somehow "driven out" by
>aeration, implying that somehow the additional dissolved gases replace the
>CO2. Is this true, or is the CO2 removed by some other mechanism? And of
>course if it is true, why couldn't the equilibrium shift the other way under
>certain conditions?
>
>Regarding fish stores advising against CO2 injection: I've never really
>given much thought to the possibility of CO2 driving out O2 under those
>conditions, but I've been leery about discontinuing aeration (which
>generally goes hand in hand with adding CO2) in some of my customers'
>crowded fish tanks. Of course, fish-crowded tanks seem more prone to become
>algae gardens than plant havens anyway, at least in my experience.
The more aeration, the more CO2 will be transported out of the water.
Diffusion of gases in and out of the water occurs at the gas/liquid
interface and this is the primary limiting factor of solution/dissolution
rates. Any increase in gas/liquid interface area and/or increase in the
mechanical agitation of the interface will increase diffusion. Increased
aeration will lower C02 but it also will provide a safety factor by
maintaining gas concentrations that are more in balance with the atmosphere
than some harder to control balance of fish and plant usage, and CO2
injection.
Both my plants and fish are really doing great so I don't worry about it!
Paul