Co2/plant Questions

For the users who run CO2 planted tanks, just had a few questions:

1) Do you move around the diffuser at all, like somedays on the left and other days maybe on the right side of the tank? If so have you seen an improvement?

2) I follow the 1 hour before the lights come on and 1 hour before the lights go off CO2 method. Do you guys run a bubble maker at night at all? If so have you seen any improvements?

3) Lastly, for plants with dark or dying/melt leaves is it better to cut them off completely or allow them to fall off on their own? Do you cut the whole leaf off or just the bad spots?

Thank you in advance.

 

HI there,

I don’t use Co2 but I think most people place their diffuser next to the return pipe to equally distribute it around the tank. I don’t see a reason to constantly move it around the tank.

I'm not familiar with that method, sorry, hopefull someone with experience in Co2 can verify my information and add to it.

For leaves that are dying, you normally should cut them off. The plant will keep throwing energy to try and fix the damaged leaf which could be used to grow a new leaf. I personally leave mine on it, I saw a video of H2o plants, where justin said he likes to leave them alone so as it’s slowly deteriorating, the rest of the plant uses the nutrients from it and they use less nutrients from the water column, you would have to see his video, he explains it better.

 

For the users who run CO2 planted tanks, just had a few questions:

1) Do you move around the diffuser at all, like somedays on the left and other days maybe on the right side of the tank? If so have you seen an improvement?

2) I follow the 1 hour before the lights come on and 1 hour before the lights go off CO2 method. Do you guys run a bubble maker at night at all? If so have you seen any improvements?

3) Lastly, for plants with dark or dying/melt leaves is it better to cut them off completely or allow them to fall off on their own? Do you cut the whole leaf off or just the bad spots?

Thank you in advance.

1) My diffuser is always in the same spot close to the middle and everything does great, never thought about moving it or saw a reason to.

2) My set up is DIY so I have to "re-prime" it every morning and reset the bubble count. Every night after I close off the CO2 I use an airstone overnight to re-oxygenate the water. This would not affect the results either way as far as I know.

3) I would also like to know the answer on this as one of my Java Fern leaves is not doing so well but I was going to leave it for the shrimp to munch on. The only reason I'd want to cut it off is for looks, other then that I'm not sure how it would affect the nutrients the plants makes and uses.. Interesting thought.

 

For the users who run CO2 planted tanks, just had a few questions:

1) Do you move around the diffuser at all, like somedays on the left and other days maybe on the right side of the tank? If so have you seen an improvement?

2) I follow the 1 hour before the lights come on and 1 hour before the lights go off CO2 method. Do you guys run a bubble maker at night at all? If so have you seen any improvements?

3) Lastly, for plants with dark or dying/melt leaves is it better to cut them off completely or allow them to fall off on their own? Do you cut the whole leaf off or just the bad spots?

Thank you in advance.

1. No reason to move it around. In an aquarium you should have sufficient water movement that its not a problem that CO2 isn't reaching all areas. However, if you want to do that you sure can - its your tank after all.. just personally a waste of time.

2. Some like to run airstones, but you should once again have enough water movement for suffice water agitation at the surface. But you certainly can run an airstone. Many do it.

3. If I'm lazy, I leave (haha) them on and let the plant do their thing. In saying that, the leaf will not 'heal' so your better off in just cutting it off and letting the plant expend such energy into new, healthy growth.

 

For the users who run CO2 planted tanks, just had a few questions:

1) Do you move around the diffuser at all, like somedays on the left and other days maybe on the right side of the tank? If so have you seen an improvement?

2) I follow the 1 hour before the lights come on and 1 hour before the lights go off CO2 method. Do you guys run a bubble maker at night at all? If so have you seen any improvements?

3) Lastly, for plants with dark or dying/melt leaves is it better to cut them off completely or allow them to fall off on their own? Do you cut the whole leaf off or just the bad spots?

Thank you in advance.

1) With proper flow moving the diffuser is not necessary. In large or long aquariums you may need an additional circulation pump.

2) If your filtration provides adequate surface agitation there is no need for an airstone, though it is not a bad idea to keep one on a timer.

3) Remove the entire leaf, this will encourage the plant to produce new growth.

 

Thank you for the responses, got the answers I was looking for, will look further into the whole cutting the leaves off.

It's incredible what added CO2 does, just recently started using it but definitely see some change already.

 

Thank you for the responses, got the answers I was looking for, will look further into the whole cutting the leaves off.

It's incredible what added CO2 does, just recently started using it but definitely see some change already.

Check out my post when I did my co2. It has some pictures of my progress after adding co2, I notice new sprouts on my carpet almost every day.