# Surface agitation ?



## fshfanatic (Apr 20, 2006)

It will assist in the release of C02 from the tank..


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## rohansd (May 9, 2006)

There is a school of thought that if you are not adding adding Co2 externally to the water column, then its not bad to have lots of surface agitation.
It rather helps increasing the surface contact of the water to atmosphere and so absorbing Co2.

In my country, I know some aquarist who follow the above approach and voucht that they have had good results.


Thanks
Rohan


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## Ryzilla (Oct 29, 2005)

My low-tech 38g get NO ferts and that includes NO co2. I rarley ever do water changes I only top off. I have done 2 water changes in 6 months of 20%. I run a emperor 400 on it which agitates the surface like no other. My crypts, hygro, java windelov, sword, and bolbitis are all very happy. My bolbitis is especally happy in the setup. There is currently 50w over the 38g. The only thing that touch monthly on this setup is the filter media. I also dont root feed the sword. The sword took a long time to settle in, and was loosing leaves for around 2 months before it fully adapted.


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## blainep (Jun 22, 2006)

*Makes sense*

It seems to makes sense, if you are adding CO2 to a tank, then you want avoid surface agitation to keep as much CO2 in the water as possible. 

If you are not adding CO2, surface agitation will help to get as much carbon dioxide in the water as possible.

After thinking about, seems simple enough.:thumbsup:


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## lumpyfunk (Dec 22, 2004)

blainep said:


> It seems to makes sense, if you are adding CO2 to a tank, then you want avoid surface agitation to keep as much CO2 in the water as possible.
> 
> If you are not adding CO2, surface agitation will help to get as much carbon dioxide in the water as possible.
> 
> After thinking about, seems simple enough.:thumbsup:



mostly right, there is an equilibrium level of co2 that would occur in water if there were no factors affecting it like plant uptake. This level is far below what is commonly injected to, I think it is somewhere around 8 ppm but am not certain.
The more surface area that is in contact with the air, the faster this level will be achieved. 
If you have no movement and do not add co2 your plants would drain this level below equilibrium faster than it could be replaced. 
If you add co2 the lack of movement would slow the return to equilibrium levels.


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