Adding CO2 to Pond?

[Miami Al]

A friend that is big into aquariums and I were at a gorgeous display at a big aquarium, and I commented on the plant growth. He says that in the aquarium world, the big push is adding CO2 when the light is on to promote plant growth.

For a test, I added CO2 Booster by API, which indirectly increases the CO2 in the water. It's been a few days, so too soon to really see an increase in plant growth, but the water is clearer and the algae is decreased.

Is adding CO2 to the pond a crazy idea? I picked up a soda stream CO2 (they are TINY) and a regulator for them to give it a try.

But I thought I'd ask here for thoughts.

 

[Lisak1]

An aquarium is indoors; a pond is (generally speaking) outdoors. The things that aquarium keepers try to mimic indoors are already happening naturally in an eco-style garden pond. Just the exposure to sunlight during the day changes the "respiration pattern" of a pond vs an aquarium. Organic material decomposing, fish and other microscopic creatures "breathing" etc... all add to the CO2 levels in a well-balanced pond, which fluctuate from day to night.

 

[Miami Al]

An aquarium is indoors; a pond is (generally speaking) outdoors. The things that aquarium keepers try to mimic indoors are already happening naturally in an eco-style garden pond. Just the exposure to sunlight during the day changes the "respiration pattern" of a pond vs an aquarium. Organic material decomposing, fish and other microscopic creatures "breathing" etc... all add to the CO2 levels in a well-balanced pond, which fluctuate from day to night.

Yeah, mostly reacting to over the summer all my plants died.

My "pond" is 270 Gallons / 1000 Liters.

 

[Lisak1]

What's your pond set up like again? Why did your plants die?

 

[Miami Al]

8x3x2 foot pond. Two filters. One is a bog system connected to a skimmer (Skimmer gravity feeds a bucket, pumped to bog). One is a bottom drain commercial system, OASE 1200, followed by a biological "urn" filter. Bottom drain -> Bucket (gravity) then pumped to the filters.

Here is the YouTube link to the video:

 

[Miami Al]

Not sure. But they didn't grow a lot. I thought they would expode in size and they didn't. My friend's diagnosis was the lack of CO2, hence I thought it would be fun to add some CO2.

 

[GBBUDD]

My avatar is from my planted aquarium where I had injected Co2 . the plants grew like weeds . However it wasn't cheap for tanks needle valves and bubble venturi. And that was for 90 gallons , to do a pond like mine with 12 to 18000 gallons isn't feasible.

Your lilies need fertilizer tablets.
CO2 Will be striped by the bog and that won't do any favors to the bacteria

 

[Miami Al]

My avatar is from my planted aquarium where I had injected Co2 . the plants grew like weeds . However it wasn't cheap for tanks needle valves and bubble venturi. And that was for 90 gallons , to do a pond like mine with 12 to 18000 gallons isn't feasible.

Your lilies need fertilizer tablets.
CO2 Will be striped by the bog and that won't do any favors to the bacteria

Okay. I’m assuming it will be minimal… it’s a fun project and I figured I’d inject CO2 for an hour a day instead of aerating.

I’ll add fertilizer.

Thanks!

 

[Mgessert]

Which water plants did you have? How hot did the pond water get? Is it in full sun, part sun, shade? Did you fertilize them?

 

[fishlips]

I would say with the five water streams CO2 should be at neer equilibrium with the air. Ponds have a much greater surface area than an aquariums and the plants are usually less dense.

If you wish to prove there's not enough CO2 test the waters pH in the morning preferably before sunrise then again mid afternoon. What you're looking for is a pH swing as the plants use carbonic acid out of the water.

I had pond lilies planted in just pea gravel and they grew poorly. The next year I capped a little bit of soil from my garden with sand and pea gravel and they grew much bigger. My pond was even heavily stocked with koi.

 

[Lisak1]

Lilies - and I have found, pretty much any plant that's in a pot in a pond - need regular fertilizer to thrive. After year two, I took every plant out of the pot and planted them directly in the pond - they grow like weeds. Every plant EXCEPT the lilies that is. I add fertilizer to those about once every two weeks throughout the growing season.

 

[Criscar]

Not sure. But they didn't grow a lot. I thought they would expode in size and they didn't. My friend's diagnosis was the lack of CO2, hence I thought it would be fun to add some CO2.

As others noted, it’s worth considering both fertilizer and micronutrients. When my pond plants stopped growing, it turned out there was zero iron in my pond (there is a test kit for this). As soon as I fixed that, they exploded in growth.

 

[Miami Al]

Which water plants did you have? How hot did the pond water get? Is it in full sun, part sun, shade? Did you fertilize them?

A variety of whatever I found locally. No good pond stores near me - I got lillies at a garden center, and the marginals for the bog there. I get stuff from aquarium sections of pet stores. A lot of "swords." They are in some pond "soil" covered in pea gravel.

Water gets hot, it's in full sun in Florida.

No fertilizer, I figured that I have a good amount of fish, but maybe I need to fertilize too.

 

[Lisak1]

You're in one of my favorite vacation spots - we spent a few weeks in Hollywood last year. Just a beautiful place to relax!

 

[Miami Al]

You're in one of my favorite vacation spots - we spent a few weeks in Hollywood last year. Just a beautiful place to relax!

Glad you enjoyed your stay! We hope you'll return!

It's been crazy to adapt to our year round "season" that picked up the past few years.

#WeLiveWhereYouVacation