co2 how important is it?

hello. ive a planted tank about 450L, the plants are growing but have brown edge to the leaves,ive read about co2 but dont know anything about it only its expensive to set up. how important is co2 in a planted tank? im feeding ferropol24 every day.the water is good mayb slighty high nitrate but its ok.

this pics does not realy show the brown edges but it gives a good idea of my tank. great forum, full of good advise

C02 isnt needed unless your using very strong lights and nutrient rich substrate... Its all about balancing the 3 when it comes to plants. Normally with medium/low light and basic ferts there is enough C02 in the tank for plants.

If you're happy enough with the plant growth at the moment i wouldnt try fix sumthin that aint broke.

High nitrates cause algae... If you increase water changes it would help the problem.

You have a big enough tank for a group of Siamese algae eaters.. Best algae eaters around .

thanks Alex for replying, i have 2 lights 54watt T5 one white and one blue, i put Manado substrate for the plants, i have 4 SAE, 4 clown loach and 2 bristle nose pleco but i still have to clean the green spot algae off the glass every week. the nitrate is high about 100mg/l but i change 20-25% water weekly so its not a problem for the fish. mostly my tank is doing fine just the brown edges of the leaves look kinda bad.as u say Alex if it aint broke dont fix it

I guess the title should be reading "how important is it to dose with CO2".

Carbon dioxide is pretty vital in a planted tank.
But it is the source of that carbon dioxide that is the real question.

Dosing with Carbon Dioxide gas is not, however, vitally important if the tank contains a sufficient source of carbon dioxide for the plants and the rate of photosynthesis within that tank (there are other factors, but they can be ignored for most general purposes). Doing is just one of many methods of getting CO2 into the water.

For effective plant growth, carbon dioxide is not the only vital component, you need:

Water (well....there should be some of that, at least, in a fish tank );

The Correct Lighting to split the water into oxygen gas and protons;

A Carbon Dioxide source (to make sugars);

A nitrogen source (it could be ammonium or nitrate depending on the plant and the pH etc) to make, for example, amino acids for proteins from sugars etc

Certain 'vitamins' (especially ones that are required in order to start protein manufacture);

Magnesium (for chloroplasts), Phosphorus, Potassium, calcium and Sulphur;

and various numerous other nutrients to make use of the major components (ie if one of these micro-nutrients is missing then it make little difference if you have a tonne of the major components)

Those could be sourced from either an added fertiliser or from natural fertilisers added by fish and dying plants etc. Some items are re-cycled within the tank, others need ro be replenished (as either fertiliser or from fish waste etc).

ian

water i have, fish i have, plants i have, without spending a months wages ( whats the best way to dose with CO2?. now im totally confused by science, thanks Ian. the ph is 7.2 maybe thats too high for the liquid fert to work well. what do you think?.i've a feeling theres no easy answer to this. great reply Ian,

I've a solution for You

If You want to have a try is the CO2 system good for You have a try with one of those:

www.hagen.com/uk/aquatic/addinfo/co2system.html
or
www.tetra.net/de/en/kaltwasserfische/pfl...ge/tetra-co2-optimat

They will show You is the CO2 good for Your tank.
I know many people who wasn't to sure are they really want to have CO2 system, but after they try with systems like those I show You they go for CO2 cylinder with all the stuff.
Yes they found hard to buy it (price of full sets) but they way happy after few months


Dan.