Tools: Aquarium CO2 Calculator

This tool comes from a discussion in Aquaticplantcentral.com forums posted by D9vin: the Aquarium CO2 calculator on the Fishfriend.com website.


If you have instituted a regimen of fertilizing your plants, have sufficient light and are disappointed with growth, this tool may provide an answer to part of the equation.  The function of plants in the aquarium aside from being aesthetically pleasing, is to help balance the environment.  Plants inhale dissolved CO2 from the water and take C02 up from the roots.  They exhale O2 which in turn is used by the livestock and the cycle repeats as long as there is balance.


For those of you who are beyond the pretty-fish-in-the-tank stage, the tools we list in the Toollbox tab give you the ability to get the answers to aquarium issues efficiently, so you can get back to what you really love; enjoying your hard work

Long Overdue

Life outside the front door created a couple of adventures for me the last year.  This blog was sadly neglected right along with the aquariums; circumstances beyond and whatnot.  It seems Blogger underwent yet another renovation; good time to give Aqua~gillie a facelift.  As with most things where creative control is not wide open, there will be tweeks.

10g~Shrimparium; Aponogeton ulvaceus, 

Three tanks are running at the moment; two 10g and a 5g.  Of the 10g, one is fish and the other shrimp.  The 5g is meant to be a grow-out but life's adventures interrupted the plans.

10g Shrimparium:

•  Flourite Black substrate
• Cryptocoryne lutea
• Aponogeton ulvaceus 
• Aponogeton ulvaceus seedlings
• Peacock moss wall
• Mystery plant
• Red Cherry Shrimp

10g~Fish:

• 80% gravel/20% Flourite black
• Mopani driftwood
• Anubias
• Java Fern
• maybe a stray C. lutea
• 1 adult Sunset Mollie ~ with a herd of babies
• 1 White Cloud Mountain minnow
• 2 American Ghost/Grass shrimp
• 1 Olive nerite snail
• Malaysian Trumpet snails

Tiger lotus

5g Grow-out:

• Aquarium gravel
• Peacock moss coconut husk
• Cryptocoryne lutea baby plants
• 3 Marimo Cladophora aegagropila
•  Tiger lotus
• more Red Cherry shrimp

After doing a moderate clean-up in all three tanks, things are returning to normal.  The flourite in the 10g~Shrimparium needs a thorough vacuuming; it will have to wait until the A. ulvaceus seedlings are large enough to transplant into the grow-out and the mother plant dies back in about a month.


In the meantime, check out the
AQ Advisor link in the Tools section.  In the short time this aquarium livestock tool has been available, almost a thousand freshwater species have been added as well as a salt water calculator and a new forum.  Stop by and show the AQ Advisor some love!

Tank Acclimation Follow Up: Secrets of Benificial Bacteria

This is a follow up post to Tank Acclimation Phase I.

From the National Science Foundation posted today June 30, 2010 excerpt:

Bonnie Bassler spends her days listening to bacteria talk to one another, and what she has overheard may surprise you.
It turns out that these tiny, single-celled organisms are taking roll call. Each whispered conversation is an attempt to count how many of their own kind are present before they try to mount an attack on their host organism, which might very well be your body.
As Bassler explains it, bacteria "are too small to have an impact on the environment if they simply act as individuals." What they lack in size, though, they make up for in numbers.

And . . . ?  Well if you are interested in cultivating beneficial bacteria in your aquarium's filter to balance the nutrients in the water column, this article may be of interest to you.  It is the beneficial bacteria cultivated during tank cycling that does the heavy lifting in the balancing of your aquarium's biosphere.  Thanks to Ms. Bassler and the National Science Foundation for the additional insight.
[Read the rest of the NSF article]