Hi everyone! I am still a newbie and recently setup a nano tank.
Usually when people refer to CO2 loss, they mean the loss of injected CO2. This is only possible with the installation of a CO2 system.
Specifically for my set up, I am going to add some Wistera (hygrophila difformis) into the tank only as a back ground. Main focus of the tanks are the Tiger Barbs. I believe the barbs would create sufficient CO2 for the wisteria and the aeration of the water would just balance the gas concentration in tank with that of the surrounding, somewhat similar to the concept of osmosis. So I think for my specific set up: Wisteria and tiger barbs only, it should be ok.
In my humble opinion and this is something I have not tried by myself, I think this concept should also work for most low tech set up. Specifically, the aeration of water encourages the exchanges of gas between the water body and the surrounding atmosphere. Since there is no forced injection of CO2 into the water, the only other way to improve the CO2 concentration in the tank would be aeration of the water. Again, I remind you that this is only my understanding. I am in the process of trying this out and I have not seen any positive convincing results so far.
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Hi everyone! I am still a newbie and recently setup a nano tank.
dear meepokman, i understand it the same way too. i believe if you read those threads/advice carefully, when they talk about minimizing CO2 loss, it is in reference to agitating water and causing injected CO2 to escape from the tank. however, if you dont have CO2 injection, the only other sources of CO2 (GAS) would be from fauna/flora respiration and atmospheric air. ie to say, dissolving air from outside into your tank, provides some CO2.
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My Exciting Fishy Life My Other Not So Exciting Fishy Life My Non-Fishy Life
Occasionally, I would have some trimmings to give away in exchange for a can of Milk Coffee. PM me to deal.
Increasing surface agitation in low-tech non-Co2 injected tanks does help in increasing the mix of natural Co2 from the air to water surface... though it wouldn't be a significant increase in Co2 levels as the difference is only a few additional ppm of Co2 which is a very tiny improvement.
I read some articles which mention its like 3ppm increase to 5ppm (compared to active Co2 injection which hits >35+ ppm levels), so i guess you wouldn't exactly see a super turbo-boost in plant growth.
More importantly, the surface agitation helps improve oxygen levels in the water, which is always beneficial to both livestock and beneficial bacteria. In low-tech tanks the overall photosynthesis rate is much less than in a high-tech tank, hence there is less oxygen generated from the plants, so oxygen generated from active surface agitation helps instead.
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