CO2 VS NO CO2 - SIDE BY SIDE COMPARISON - THE DIFFERENCE CO2 MAKES IN GROWING PLANTS 

Got another idea for you. Look up Trough Rocks. The are advertised as Australian paramagnetic rocks that are safe for animals and pond fish that inhibit algae.

Ha ha . Try co2 vs liquid carbon like excel flourish

MD has had good results with pond fertilizer

Great video awesome experiment. Another RU-vid MD fish tanks just did a dirted tank you may want to watch his. He didn't do a comparison like you are getting ready to I really enjoy your videos. I watch all aquascape videos I can find. And honestly you are one of the best. If you get a chance watch serpadesign that man is at another level.

hehehe.

Great point!

Totally agree with you

Hopefully I didn't miss and that there's a video on it, but I think the best comparison would be the tanks used for the substrate comparison, that way the no co2+co2 can be "controls", and there's different liquid carbon products that claim other things beside introducing carbon, so might be a good use for the tanks

Yes!

That’s extremely inconsistent because everybody’s tapwater is different I am on a well and My water grows plants extremely well

More tanks! I'm up for it 😂

There is I am afraid no liquid CO2 at normal atmospheric pressure.

Glad you like them!

Good stuff!

Thanks!

Awesome, thank you!

In my experience, it's floaters , co2 and strong light My largest tank has a mix of salvinia, duckweed, water lettuce and frogbit, co2 injection and a 30w spotlight for lighting, I've neglected it for the past month other than feeding (quite liberally), taking out floaters and occasional fertilizing, tested yesterday and had 0 nitrite and nitrate 150 liters planted with co2, fluval 206 filter, 20 cardinals, 10 chili rasboras, 11 siamese algae eaters and 10 amano shrimp Believe it's considered overstocked, but water parameters are doing pretty good based on tests

Nice 👍 Thanks for sharing!

CO2 definitely turbo-charges plant growth. I think this experiment demonstrated how powerful it can be. However, I worry that beginners will see this and think you can't have nice plants without CO2 and that you'll be mired in algae all the time. To give a NO-CO2 setup the best chance the other parameters need to be optimized for it. In practice I think that means good air exchange with an airstone, lower nutrients from the soil, a lot of fish to produce CO2 and nutrients for the plants, and lower lighting to keep algae growth down especially at the beginning. Once algae begins to grow on the leaves of the plants they are in a lot of trouble because they have no way to clean it off and they get starved of light. I think a really beautiful, well-balanced NO-CO2 planted tank can be achieved. It just takes a lot of patience and experience to learn about how to keep the parameters optimized for slower plant growth.

Check out MD fish tanks on youtube. He also did this at some point... worked a treat!

Pond soil works a treat but works better with injected CO2, done it many times over the last decade or two or more...but in hardwater the light needs to be intense.

Awesome! This is really helpful

If it's just NPK it should work right?

Was thinking about that as well!

I can recommend the reactor kit shown in this video as a cheap but reliable and safe alternative. You add baking soda, citric acid and water which reacts and produces pressurized CO2. It comes with a solenoid on the bubble counter which can be controlled to come on and off via a timer. I've just refilled mine for the second time. The cost for the baking soda (350g) and citric acid (400g) was about 5 euros and the gauge is showing 36kg of pressurized CO2! Which will last about 4 months at the rate I'm injecting it. This system isn't super advanced by any means but provides CO2 for a very reasonable cost when you consider the full kit costs about 100 euros. Mark has a video on his channel about the kit.

@@Outlander929 This is the diy one I have, although whenever I refill it, a new problem arises. After some time messing with it I usually find a solution, but from time to time the CO2 rate goes all the way up or just suddenly stop without the solution being done. That's why I'm seriously considering the pressurized one.

@@arthurheine5631 When you said DIY CO2 I thought you were using soda bottles with sugar and yeast. My mistake.. You could have a leak somewhere or perhaps a blockage. I've read the silica beads in the filter can become sticky and clog, stopping CO2 from passing. Seems strange though. Hope you get it sorted.

Nice one!

So in other words you added liquid c02.

Probably like 1 per 4-5 seconds

@@MJAquascaping okay, thanks!!

Aquario Neo soil

No that's marsilea hirsuta!

I never gravel vac

Dirted (potting compost under a layer of gravel) tanks and tanks with aqua soil are really in my experience not that biological different. They both use soil for macro and micro nutrients and both benefit from a small amount of CO2 generated by decomposition - adding perhaps 5 ppm to the water (that figure is a guesstimate I concede). In very hard water my experience is also that for an algae free tank with a good range of plants, injected CO2 is absolutely essential. In both dirted, with aqua soil or even tanks with sand or gravel with injected CO2 plants grow well. With sand or gravel water column fertilisation can largely compensate for a neutral and inert and inorganic substrate. Decomposition in dirted tanks, i.e. soil capped with gravel, generates only modest amounts of CO2 (even Walstad admits that in her book) but this is enough in soft and moderately hard water for a range of easier to grow true marginals, Vallis, Hornwort, Egeria, take a look at Foo the Flowerhead's dirted tank and how Hornwort became dominant relatively quickly. You will also be able to grow Duckweed since it takes CO2 from the atmosphere. Hard water tanks, dirted or not, regardless of CO2 also need high light levels if a range of plants are to be successfully grown. Live stock (fish, snails and shrimps) do not generate meaningful amounts of CO2 in terms of meeting the needs of plant photosynthesis (but they dump plenty of macro nutrients in the water), the living bacteria in the filter and in the substrate do generate meaningful amounts of CO2 but not enough for the luscious style of ornamental tank we normally aspire to. In a natural pond the deep mud in the middle where the water is deep and there are no plants, CO2 is created by bacteria to feed the aquatic plants in the shallows with CO2, this is where rooted plants can grow to reach the light, few aquatic plants can grow much more than two metres in height, but many can spread far wider than than once they hit the surface. Best wishes, keep enjoying the hobby.

Thanks for the tip

We all know that liquid carbon is not actually carbon. All experienced aquarists state that liquid carbon cannot be an alternative to Co2. No need for such kind of experiment.

@@Habits1986 Liquid carbon could improve plant growth and health by acting like an algaecide. I’d just like to see if it makes a visible difference against a control.

it's the dennerle scapers flow filter!