lots of mist/less total co2. Should I care?

[sherry]

In experimenting with how to increase o2 in the tank, I have gotten rid of the bubbler, left my power head ripples and most importantly took the top off of the tank. (it was a piece of acrylic with a 1.5 inch circular hole.

My co2 based on kh5 solution went from perfectly mid green to green witha bit of blue, so I uppd my co2 and messed around with power head ect...

I now have a load of visible mist, but the drop checker still shows a darker green than I had been running. Not blue green, but definately one step darker.
(edit -- actually tonight I am a definate mid green, but with about twice the bubble count now that the top is off.)

and the question remains.. in the presence of visible mist do I care as much about the total co2 saturation? Do the plants care? If they are in swirl of mist with less dissolved gas being held in the water, does it matter? Is the mist enough?

Before my co2 was so constant (even during night with co2 off and bubbler on) I thought my drop checker was slow. Now I think it was the gas getting trapped under the top.

 

[Tom Barr]

It's really difficult to say directly.

How do you know if the micro bubbles are adding enough CO2 vs the dissolved forms?

There are a few ways, one is an O2 meter and see if you can get the same or a higher O2 levels from less dissolved CO2.

You can also monitor the CO2 dissolved and have one equal as far as that goes for a control, and then have the other treatment with CO2 mist + the same ppm in solution.

You can take dry weights at the end of the test and see the growth differences that way as well as with the O2 data. I know of no way to trace the phases of CO2 as it moved through a system.

Current is also a big issue, that alone can increase O2 as it breaks up the boundary layers. Many folks switching to mist often increase and modified their current a fair amount to get the max effect.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[sherry]

I added two power heads going at right angles when I added my mist and yesterday I had my first real (non water change pearling) since my co2 disaster.. so that isa good sign.

so far NOTHING has suffered overtly from cutting light nearly in half from 4.5 watts to 2.5, glandulosa is a little shakey but it has been since co2 cut out a few weeks ago.