Any limit to CO2 in a fish-free tank?

Nutrients, fertilization, substrates etc
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sns26
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Any limit to CO2 in a fish-free tank?

Post by sns26 »

I've rescaped my main tank, and that included adding enough new Aquasoil that I moved the fish to temporary quarters to let the ammonia settle down. While the critters are off premises and I'm trying to get the plants started off right, I jacked up the CO2 so that my drop checker is a nice pale yellow. Which got me thinking...aside from major pH drop, is there any reason NOT to pump the CO2 up super-duper high for a few weeks?
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krisw
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Re: Any limit to CO2 in a fish-free tank?

Post by krisw »

You can crank higher than you would with fish, but there's always a limit for anything we add to our tanks. Would be interesting to know what the tolerances of the various bacterial colonies are.
JLW
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Re: Any limit to CO2 in a fish-free tank?

Post by JLW »

I'm curious... CO2 will certainly reach a saturation point where more won't do anything. Of course, this will be higher than just the CO2 saturation of water; you'll have Saturation + Photosynthesis. I wonder if high CO2 overnight could suffocate the plants? They can't photosynthesize and get rid of excess CO2 without light.
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sukrol
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Re: Any limit to CO2 in a fish-free tank?

Post by sukrol »

JLW wrote:I wonder if high CO2 overnight could suffocate the plants? They can't photosynthesize and get rid of excess CO2 without light.
Well you'd hope the CO2 is on a timer and the tank has good water surface agitation, etc...
Gabriel
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