[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Bubbling plants
I have a heavily planted 70G (ex-high) with CO2 injection and 4X30W T-8
fluorescent. The plants in my tank rarely produce any oxygen bubbles.
When I get home in the evening, I somtimes find a few bubbles on some
of the plants, but never any steady streams of bubbles. In fact,
the only time I've seen any steady streams of bubbles is on sunny
summer evenings when the sunlight in the room is at its maximum.
(NW facing windows)
Yesterday I aerated the tank all day long due to the excess CO2 problem
mentioned in my last post. When I came home, I noticed that the plants
were covered with bubbles. Hornwort and milfoil in particular had tiny
bubbles on every leaf. I don't think these were just trapped bubbles
from the aeration, since the airstone was producing large bubbles at
one end of the tank, while the hornwort was covered with tiny bubbles
at the other end.
Now, I would think that aerating the tank would reduce the available
CO2 and slow photosynthesis, resulting in less oxygen production. But
perhaps the aeration helped to saturate the water with oxygen, meaning
that any oxygen produced by the plants would tend to pop out of solution
and form bubbles. If so, then is my heavy fish load the determining
factor that prevents bubbling on a regular basis by keeping the oxygen
level below saturation?
David Ozenne
Berkeley, CA