Plants stopped bubbling

[illumnae]

I have a 4x2x2 tank running on ~3wpg lights, 4bps CO2 and EI fertilization with Gex substrate. While the tank was devoid of fauna, the plants would bubble furiously within an hour of the lights and CO2 being turned on. After i introduced the fauna last weekend, however, despite there being no change to the tank settings (in fact, CO2 should be even higher shouldn't it, since my fauna respires?), the plants have stopped bubbling.

is this a cause for concern? have my plants stopped photosynthesizing? what could be the cause of this?

thanks in advance for your advice.

[Aquaculture]

Interesting... Rest assure, that the plants haven't stop photosynthesising. But logically, with the additional of fauna, there is an increase of CO2... there should be more bubbles .... humm

Just a wild guess, what kind of fauna are you referring to? Could it be that they are blocking the light to allow the plant to bubble?

[Aeon]

Waste from fauna upset the original fauna-less balance of nutrients and caused the plants to not be in optimal photosynthetic condition?

[prec]

Maybe the fishes' swimming so called created an unstable ground for the bubbles to form? just like if u have a patch of bubbling riccia on the substrate without any fauna, but after adding in just 1-2 shrimps, you'll not have that effect again because they will "walk" all over the patch.

Hope you get what i'm trying to say.

[illumnae]

Interesting... Rest assure, that the plants haven't stop photosynthesising. But logically, with the additional of fauna, there is an increase of CO2... there should be more bubbles .... humm

Just a wild guess, what kind of fauna are you referring to? Could it be that they are blocking the light to allow the plant to bubble?

the fauna aren't blocking the light. they're mostly discus and at the moment, due to being newly reintroduced after the scaping, they're largely hiding under the plants.

Waste from fauna upset the original fauna-less balance of nutrients and caused the plants to not be in optimal photosynthetic condition?

this could be the case...but wouldn't the addition of fauna with no other disturbance mean that there are more nutrients for the plants...if that's the case i shouldn't be seeing no more bubbles right? at the very least the bubbling should remain the same...furthermore with EI dosing, there is always an excess of nutrients in the water anyway...as long as the plants are taking in what they need, the excess shouldn't matter i think? unless i understood EI wrongly

[Aquaculture]

Just thinking out loud. If there is an increase in CO2, increase in nutrients shouldn't it add up to an increase in bubbles... if according to Aeon, to balance the equation should there also be an increase in WPG?

[Shadow]

Would it be possible that too much bioload, more O2 usage and plant does not produce fast enough O2? I'm trying to say that the rate of O2 produce by plant less than the rate of O2 dissolve in the water.

[luenny]

A few factors to consider:
- Are your plants still getting the optimum environment they need for photosyntesis? More, nuitrent, more CO2 what about the rest? Lights?
- Are your fauna disturbing the water or the plants so that the bubbles cannot be formed but disolved instead?
- And like Robert said, in order for O2 bubbles to be form, the water have to be saturated with O2. If not it will most likely dissolve instead.

[illumnae]

i think you guys have hit upon the answer =) the fish probably are taking up more oxygen than the plants are producing and as such the bubbling is no longer apparent, although the plants are still producing oxygen...this wasn't so in the unstocked tank since i had nothing that would remove oxygen from the water.

thanks to everyone who answered...really appreciate the advice and effort!

P.S Luenny, the plants are getting the exact same fert regime, lights and CO2 that they used to get prior to adding the fish in