# When is too much CO2, too much?



## LondonDragon (10 Dec 2020)

Just wondering peoples views on too much CO2 causing issues, is there such a thing? Other than being bad for your livestock off course.

Cheers
Paulo


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## Sammy Islam (10 Dec 2020)

I guess you could inject too much and crash the PH depending on your water. Or maybe go too low so beneficial bacteria dies or stops growing?

I've recently reduced CO2🙈


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## Wookii (10 Dec 2020)

Its a good question Paulo. I watched a Green Aqua video the other day where Balazs quoted too much CO2 as a contributor towards algae:



Timestamp - (19:17)

But then he also recommends increasing light get rid of diatoms, and states soft water as one of their essential 7 factors for a planted tank, so I don know!

Certainly in  my old tank when I some some minor BBA and Staghorn issues, the general advice you read always seems to be increase CO2 or CO2 distribution, but I always seemed to get it worse on the plants directly in front of the filter outlet richest in CO2.


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## zozo (10 Dec 2020)

If you don't have livestock you can't have enough CO².  You won't kill any plants with it...  All tho, when it comes to terrestrial plants the general theory says a Ph bellow 5 is critical... But then the Ph isn't lowered with CO² but with acid, such as nitric acid in the growing season and Phosphoric acid in the flowering season.

Now i actually have no idea what the difference between acidity is when it comes from different sources. 

I think we have to wait for Darrel @dw1305 for this answer...


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## dw1305 (10 Dec 2020)

Hi all, 


zozo said:


> I think we have to wait for Darrel @dw1305 for this answer...


I don't know, my guess would be that you can't practically dissolved enough CO2 into the water to get anywhere near the levels that would cause problems.  <"Lake Kivu is supersaturated with CO2 of volcanic origin">, and appears to have aquatic plants growing in it.  I couldn't find any pictures for lakes Nyos and Monoun.

cheers Darrel


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## Andy Taylor (10 Dec 2020)

Would too much Co2 make my tank look like a glass of 7up?


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## Wookii (10 Dec 2020)

Andy Taylor said:


> Would too much Co2 make my tank look like a glass of 7up?


Not if it’s all dissolved, but either way, I wouldn’t mix it with your Barcardi!


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## zozo (10 Dec 2020)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I don't know, my guess would be that you can't practically dissolved enough CO2 into the water to get anywhere near the levels that would cause problems.  <"Lake Kivu is supersaturated with CO2 of volcanic origin">, and appears to have aquatic plants growing in it.  I couldn't find any pictures for lakes Nyos and Monoun.
> 
> cheers Darrel



Did anyone ever try to get to the max, with how low can you go under atmospheric pressure?  A bottle of soda has about Ph 3.8 and Coca Cola pH 2.8. I guess the Coca Cola is a mix of both, ingredients and CO²  under pressure. The Soda is just water with CO² under pressure,if i'm correct at about 4 bar.

The lowest i got in a HT tank is pH 5.8, with livestock.  Now i do not know what's meant with issues, but for the short term i didn't have any.


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## dw1305 (10 Dec 2020)

Hi all, 


zozo said:


> A bottle of soda has about Ph 3.8 and Coca Cola pH 2.8. I guess the Coca Cola is a mix of both, ingredients and CO² under pressure.


We have <"a thread">.


dw1305 said:


> *I don't know how much dissolved CO2 there is in a can of coke, but <"my guess is quite a lot"> scrub that, it is an incredible amount . I've just found that coke link, which says "_0.14mol CO2 in 1000mL_".
> 
> The RAM of carbon (C) is 12 and of oxygen (O) = 16, and we have two of them so that is 32 and the RMM of CO2 is 12+32 = 44, 44 x 0.14 is 6.16g and mg/L is equivalent to ppm. So you have about 6160 ppm of CO2 in the can, although 0.15% (about 0.01g) of this will be dissolved carbonic acid (H2CO2) and some of the gaseous CO2 will be in the headspace of the can above the liquid.



cheers Darrel


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## AverageWhiteBloke (11 Dec 2020)

Wookii said:


> Certainly in  my old tank when I some some minor BBA and Staghorn issues, the general advice you read always seems to be increase CO2 or CO2 distribution, but I always seemed to get it worse on the plants directly in front of the filter outlet richest in CO2.


That would always be the case for me also. I know "prevention is better than the cure" is a bit of an over used cliche but once algae is getting to nuisance levels improving living conditions in the tank for your flora also improves the growing conditions for the now present algae. why wouldn't it? It's only when the existing algae has gone and the plants are now in a better position to keep it at bay you will see a difference which takes a bit of time and some work on your behalf.

I would suggest a level of co2 that is too much would be one that you can't sustain and keep stable for extended periods 🤔


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