Does the direction that water current hits plant leaves make any difference?

[jeremy v]

Hello,

I have been reading more about the structure of plants lately. One thing I picked up was that the stomata are the only part of the leaf structure that absorbs the CO2 from the water, and that the stomata are also only located on the bottom side of the leaves.

Assuming both of those things are correct I have a question related to that. In a recent thread by Tom he showed how greatly CO2 levels actually fluctuate within a tank at different depths, in plant beds, etc. even with good circulation. Would there be any noticeable benefit to having the tank returns angled up from the substrate possibly behind the plant beds and flowing the fresh CO2 rich water upwards so that it hits the bottoms of all the plant leaves versus the rich CO2 water coming from the filter flowing down and hitting the tops of the plant leaves or hitting them from the side like is most commonly done?

A more specific question related to carpet plants would be this. Would you get noticeably better growth with "carpet type" plants by slowly diffusing a small amount of your CO2 rich water up through the substrate so that the CO2 could better reach the bottoms of all the small leaves that are packed together so tightly in the plant beds?

Have a good one, Jeremy

 

[Tom Barr]

The CO2 rich water should come from below ideally.
Many species of aquatic plants have no stomata at all BTW.
And in many cases where they do, they are non functional.



Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[jeremy v]

Tom,

Thanks for the response, I appreciate it. I can see by your response that there is still a lot for me to learn in this area, so I will see what I can do about doing just that. I knew I was going to end up with more questions after starting this thread, it happens every time, haha.

Have a good one, Jeremy