# Interesting thread i read about planted tanks



## neven (May 15, 2010)

Browsing around forums that i frequent, i came across a thread that brought up an interesting point.

What tank can use lower light? a co2 enriched tank or a non co2?

So lets see what people think


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## _TiDy_ (Apr 29, 2010)

I would imagine a enriched co2 tank would thrive better than a non co2 tank since the only limiting factor for plant growth would be the amount of light given correct dosages of ferts and no other carbon supplement like excel or metricide.


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## jkam (Apr 21, 2010)

both can be low light, just depends on how you maintain the tank and what is in there. 

this is kind of a broad question and you can't really answer it without a specific tank and regime.


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## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

CO2 enriched tanks can process the available light most efficiently as long a the nutrient load is ideal (like in EI dosing regimes) and the lighting is the same in both tanks. My 2 low-tech tanks are going to be converted to CO2 injected tanks because of this ! 

Best regards,

Stuart


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

the interesting thing is just how much lower light you can go with a co2 enriched tank vs a non co2 enriched.

because plants produce an enzyme for catching light (Chlorophyll) and an enzyme for catching co2 (Rubsico), both utilize nitrogen. Because they both use nitrogen the plant can allocate more of its resources into light catching if there is an abundance of co2. Meaning the plant will utilize a lot more of the available light. This adaption takes time for some species, but the pay off is well worth it. Afterall, we dont want excess light being used by algae, they wont use the excess co2 (thats why they say co2 fixes almost all algae). Well its true some plants are indeed high light, others will appear so for only a short period of time, looking scraggly before they kick off. I had this happen with glosso in my tanks, it took a few weeks then boom, it grew quite lush and healthy. How many people are impatient and pull the plants out in hopes to save it in a higher lit tank?

Wouldn't we all love to have a lush growing tank without needing to trim plants every few days? well this is the advantage of having a co2 enriched tank in the lower reaches of the medium light range. You can have almost every species of plants your water parameters allow you to, as long as you have the co2. Many species will even grow healthy at 25-30 PAR given theres enough co2. Many think you only need co2 when you go above 4x this much PAR, and they lose out because of it. 

Keep in mind there must still be nutrients to drive the growth. EI dosing will provide this.

As for you stuart, i hope you try out a couple of your really high light required plants in your lower tech tanks because i want to see if they'll have the same colouring given enough co2 at med light.


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