CO2 cheap experiment

[HappyGuppy]

While researching other things I had an interesting thought, and saw someone post the idea too.  However now that I've left the world of freshwater planted tanks I can't perform the experiment myself but am going to pass along the idea here, and hope that someone will take the challenge of trying it on on a test tank.

The idea comes from carbon dosing saltwater tanks (sugar, vodka, vinegar).  Basically by adding one of the above (or a mix) a bacterial bloom happens that consumes the excess phosphates & nitrates in the tank (and the bacteria are then removed from the tank via skimmer or cryptic zone).  The bacteria produce plenty of CO2.

The thought is - - - could dosing a tiny pinch of sugar to a planted tank provide the plants a cheap & easily administered form of CO2?

A couple of years ago I inadvertently did that and noticed my plants pulsed in growth.  I had guppies in a heavily planted tank that I wanted to convert to endlers.  Since I didn't want hybrids I removed all the guppies from the tank.  Two fish evaded my best efforts at capture for weeks, so out of desperation I decided to try to kill them.  I dosed sugar into the tank.  Not only did the fish NOT die, but the plants had a growth spurt.  I didn't mentally connect the dots of the cool thing I had done back then, but now realized what had happened.

FWIW, I don't know the ultimate results of tiny dosing sugar to a freshwater planted tank will be long term.  Could be good.  Could be bad.  Like I said, if I had a freshwater tank to experiment with I'd be doing this myself, but since I don't I hope that someone will give it a try and will report their results here for the benefit of everyone.  I'll be watching out of interest.  If no one takes on the challenge then it might be the excuse for MTS, setting up a tank just to experiment with.

[HappyGuppy]

The thought is - - - could dosing a tiny pinch of sugar to a planted tank provide the plants a cheap & easily administered form of CO2?

Perhaps I should clarify that the sugar doesn't dose CO2 directly, but rather is a result of bacteria consuming tank nutrients (I guess a secondary benefit), and the sugar which gets metabolized to CO2.  Just adding this for clarification.

[exv152]

If you don't mind having a bacterial bloom in your tank, which will pollute the water and lead to suffocating your fish of oxygen.

[HappyGuppy]

If you don't mind having a bacterial bloom in your tank, which will pollute the water and lead to suffocating your fish of oxygen.

The key would be *balance*.  Obviously a huge bacterial bloom would lead to cloudy water and would likely suffocate your fish.  In moderation I'm sure that one could find the happy area of enough for benefit without detriment.

EDIT to add:  One more thing.  In the above story I shared I dosed some sugar expecting the detrimental effects (I wanted to kill the un-catchable fish), but I guess I must have dosed too little as not only did the fish not die but I didn't notice any cloudy water, and the plants did have a bit of a growth spurt.  It is the combination of the above mentioned experience, plus the scientific concept, plus seeing someone else mention the speculation, that leads me to suspect that this is worthy of exploring further.

[exv152]

Sugar has no place in a planted tank. Aside from polluting the water with bacteria, dosing any amount would have other detrimental side effects such as the production of lactic acid and ethanol, meaning ethanol toxicosis or dehydration for your fish which no amount of oxygenation can fix.