sera guide - Splendid plants in your aquarium

Only carbon dioxide, or CO2 for short, allows plants to build up organic compounds during photo synthesis (page 4) for their growth. Plants utilize the mere carbon (C) for this pur- pose, which they separate from CO2 during photo synthesis. Oxygen (O2) is released into the environment. Insufficient CO2 leads to poor plant growth, puny appearance and pale col- ors. Using CO2 and water, plants produce complex sugar molecules they require for their growth, and they produce oxy- gen for the other living beings in the aquarium at day. Plants can only grow healthily with suffi- cient CO2 supply. Furthermore, the CO2 level is an important stabilizer of the carbonate hard- ness and, correspondingly, the pH value. O2 O2 O2 10 The general rule is: the faster a plant grows, the higher its CO2 requirements. Thus, espe- cially the fast growing plants require addi- tional CO2, e.g. the very beautiful Green Cabomba (Cabomba aquatica) or the deco- rative Red Tiger Lotus (Nymphaea lotus). The better the plants grow, the more oxygen they produce and consume even more algae nu- trients. You will thus hardly have any trouble with annoying algae. Carbon is consumed by the plants Oxygen is released The CO2 requirements of aquatic plants CO2 fertilization