Adding CO2 to Pond?

[Miami Al]

@EricV - Makes sense. I don't think it effects the emergent plants, but the submersed ones matter.

 

[Lisak1]

Hey, if you're having fun with your experiment, that's all that matters, right?

 

[Rugar458]

A friend that is big into aquariums and I were at a gorgeous display at a big aquarium, and I commented on the plant growth. He says that in the aquarium world, the big push is adding CO2 when the light is on to promote plant growth.

For a test, I added CO2 Booster by API, which indirectly increases the CO2 in the water. It's been a few days, so too soon to really see an increase in plant growth, but the water is clearer and the algae is decreased.

Is adding CO2 to the pond a crazy idea? I picked up a soda stream CO2 (they are TINY) and a regulator for them to give it a try.

But I thought I'd ask here for thoughts.

Using CO2 will increase photophythesis in the plants, you can see the oxygen bubbles coming out of the leaves. However it needs monitoring. The buffer capacity of the water will need to be measured to determine the proper addition of the CO2 so you don't spike the pH and kill the tank you will also need max lighting to increase the photophythesis enough to keep things going. I think it would be hard and costly to do in a descent size pond and with all the airation most of the CO2 would be flushed out of the water before the plants could take advantage.

 

[Miami Al]

Using CO2 will increase photophythesis in the plants, you can see the oxygen bubbles coming out of the leaves. However it needs monitoring. The buffer capacity of the water will need to be measured to determine the proper addition of the CO2 so you don't spike the pH and kill the tank you will also need max lighting to increase the photophythesis enough to keep things going. I think it would be hard and costly to do in a descent size pond and with all the airation most of the CO2 would be flushed out of the water before the plants could take advantage.

So the idea, which I never got to really work with the piping problems of all things, was to pump CO2 into the pond for an hour before sunrise.

I would run the Air Pump all night to bring to normal. Then pump CO2 for a bit to bring the levels up. Then let the filtration system suck it up over the next few hours.

My pond is only 300 gallons, so it didn't seem impossible.

 

[Rugar458]

Once you measure your water hardness KH you can calculate how much CO2 your system can take without sending the pH to low or oxygen levels to low. I experimented with this in a 75 gal and a 300 gal planted aquariums. It is really only benifitial to submerged plants, like hornworth, anacharis...If you like to play with numbers it's all mathamatics you just need to know your water parameters. I think you will be sending your water through some wide pH swings. CO2 will only benifit the plants with peak sunlight when photophythesis is at it's peak, and necessary nutrients.

 

[GBBUDD]

Your in Miami you have everything you need for plants to grow LIKE MAD. co2 is a dangerous game i don't think you know what your getting into.

 

[Lisak1]

The question here seems to be “why”?

 

[Rugar458]

The question here seems to be “why”?

 

[Miami Al]

So after fighting with the piping for a while, I gave up. I think I did something dangerous at some point. I had some fish deaths. I've stopped playing with it at all and ripped it all out yesterday. The air pump died, it's being replaced. I'll run the air pump at night.

CO2 was a fun concept but a failed experiment.

Aeration everywhere is successful though. I have an air pump with stones in the pre-filter buckets that I added some bio material to. They are really dedicated filters now (mechanical and biological), so I have air in them. Air everywhere seems to be working for me.

Fish load keeps increasing through natural production, and everything looks fantastic.

Did add purigen to one of the filters yesterday to clear up tannins.

 

[Miami Al]

Once you measure your water hardness KH you can calculate how much CO2 your system can take without sending the pH to low or oxygen levels to low. I experimented with this in a 75 gal and a 300 gal planted aquariums. It is really only benifitial to submerged plants, like hornworth, anacharis...If you like to play with numbers it's all mathamatics you just need to know your water parameters. I think you will be sending your water through some wide pH swings. CO2 will only benifit the plants with peak sunlight when photophythesis is at it's peak, and necessary nutrients.

Yeah, I think the swings we bad. Project abandoned.