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Basically the mina argument against biowheels is that it allows the Co2 to escape from the water. However, if you arent injecting Co2, does this matter? What kind of filter would be reccomended then?
In certain instances this could be true. If plants were stripping all the CO2 from the tank, increasing water circulation and surface agitation could help equilibrate CO2 and restore levels to or near equilibrium again. At any rate bio-wheels aren't in any way detrimental to planted tanks, they do sometimes pose a problem with trying to maintain injected CO2 levels when using DIY yeast injection.nonamethefish said:Thanks for the info! Wouldn't water agitation, with no(additional) Co2, add Co2 to the water?
That's possible but not always the case. If you have too much lighting for a non-CO2 tank then yes. In most correctly balanced low light tanks, I have found that reduced gas exchange can help maintain higher CO2 levels than atmospheric balance. This is because your fish and other processes in the tank also produce CO2, therefore if your plants are consuming less CO2 than what is being produced by the tank, reducing gas exchange will actually help maintain a higher CO2 level than atmospheric. It's something that is unique to every tank, can't really generalize on this, if you increase gas exchange rate and find your PH rises then you were better off before, otherwise you will see a drop in PH indicating more CO2 in the water compared to before.nonamethefish said:Thanks for the info! Wouldn't water agitation, with no(additional) Co2, add Co2 to the water?