Air in a Viv.

[Superfly]

With all the plants in an average vivarium, do you think that there would be enough o2 created to sustain the frogs/fish in it?

[brettlt]

Well, since plants produce O2, then the more plants the better. I have seen very heavily planted vivs with lots of healthy animals in them.

You should also have some ventilation in most vivs. It is good for most of the plants and for the inhabitants. What animals do you plan to keep in your vivarium?

[Superfly]

I was just wondering if it might be possible. I was thinking that it would be more likely in a rather large viv. as plants produce co2 at night. I definately plan on having ventilation in the tank im building for some RETF's. (build log is in the treefrog forum)

Just curious....thanks for the reply!

[Tindomul1of9]

Well, no tanks will be air tight, so I wouldn't worry to much. And yes, plants with release CO2 at night, but I've never heard of them releasing so much that they kill the inhabitants. The key to keeping a healthy water feature is surface movement. If the water doesn't move, it will quickly become anoxic.

[funwithfrogs]

Plants work on a respiratory cycle, converting Using CO2 during photosynthesis and releasing oxygen. However during respiration the process is reversed. The question isn't very well answered without knowing what your going to have in the tank with the plants. Different animals obviously use different amounts of O2 during normal activity, so an animal that has a higher oxygen usage would pose a bigger problem than very minute creatures. Planted fish tanks with pressurized CO2 systems have similar concerns as far as oxygen to CO2 ratio. At night when aquatic plants are releasing CO2 you must turn off the pressurized system or you have an excess of CO2 build up, which in water causes two issues, lack of oxygen, and a pH drop. I would suggest that the less animals in the vivarium the more likely it will be successful strictly relying on plants to oxygenate the tank. In my opinion plants that perform photosynthesis at a higher or more constant rate should work better than slow growing plants because the oxygen would be recycled at a higher rate.

[Superfly]

Sounds good. That would be an interesting project once you got everything setup right. There would have to be some engineering done and lots of planning. I just started my first viv. a month ago and im still smoothing out a few problems.