How plants use CO2 to grow like crazy!

We all know by now CO2 makes our plants grow like crazy, but how??? Carbon dioxide (CO2) is 100% essential in plant growth whether they be on land or under water. CO2 is present in all of our aquariums whether you have a CO2 producing system in place or not, it is present no matter what due to water surface absorption from the air you and I breath. So here’s how it works, following the light reaction in a plants chloroplast, witch generated small amounts of ATP and the high energy electron carrier molecule NADPH, the Calvin cycle now takes place. Now, the Calvin cycle also know as a process called Carbon Fixation is where CO2 is vital and you will soon see why. Using the energy from ATP and NADPH the Calvin cycle also takes in molecules of CO2 from outside the cell, (AKA your aquarium water) and reduces them into G3P AKA a sugar precursor that eventually gets modified into a usable sugar for the cell. Now, read this a few times and it will start to make sense. The more CO2 your plants can take in, the more sugars they can make, thus the more they can grow. The sugars that are produced as a result of the Calvin cycle then travel out of the chloroplast to the mitochondria of the cell where the sugar is used in conjunction with other important molecules through biochemical pathways to produce the bulk of the cells ATP which is the real reason for why the plant can grow so fast and efficiently. So, when it’s all said and done, the more CO2 your plants have access to, the faster and more efficient they can grow! Hope this helps!

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Permalink Reply by Sin the conqueror on February 20, 2012 at 12:36am

what about hard water plants that take up bicarbonates instead of co2?

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Permalink Reply by LED on September 30, 2012 at 2:57am

usually hard water plant can use co2 but would rather have bicarbonates. As long as there is enough bicarbonate in the water then your plants will be fine. Most tanks that people have do not have only bicarbonate up taking plants. People tend to be eclectic with their plant types. Thus having a pH at 6.5 to 7.5 will keep all the plants happy

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Permalink Reply by Sin the conqueror on September 30, 2012 at 1:20pm

i know about plants and bicarbonates...i was just questioning an over simplified view of co2 vs plant growth

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Permalink Reply by Paul on February 29, 2012 at 2:31am

So bumping up my bubbles per second will speed up the growth of my plants? Is there an equilibrium point that they hit for the maximization of the absorbtion of co2?

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Permalink Reply by Paul Jones on May 6, 2012 at 9:40pm

id think the more co2 added would need you to add more light and ferts for the plants to use the extra co2 efficiently

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Permalink Reply by LED on September 30, 2012 at 3:03am

there is a max point that you would have in terms of ppm of co2 in the water. Anything above 40ppm is too high if you have both fish and plants in the same tank.

If you only have plants, then you can go higher with ppm co2 BUT as you go higher in ppm of co2 you start to change the chemistry in the tank. having lots of co2 in the tank causes your tanks pH to drop. if you let it drop too much then you can cause metal toxicity to your plants (including fish if you have low pH and very rich substrate) Low pH causes bound metals to break apart from EDTA and become free ions that bind to molecules in fish and plants, with too much of this occurring then you have gill diseases and other bodily functions fail. Cell function in fish and plants get messed up and then you have dead stuff in your tank.

metal toxicity is only one aspect of playing too much with pH and too much co2