Liquid CO2 for water plants terminal for newts

[Ari P]

I wanted to post this up incase it hadn't been mentioned before and to spare anyone else the horror show I created for my newts.

I had a happy collection of 8 living in a simple temp tank for a year with no issues. During that time I built what I thought would be a much more natural environment for them with fish, snails, shrimp, clams and a moss laden, orchid filled terrestial section for some matching dart frogs. The Strauchii newts and the ranitomeya vanzolinis nicely matched and seemed to be doing excellent in the enclosure. What didn't seem to be thriving was the aquatic plants. In lieu of a true CO2 system I opted to try out API liquid CO2 - billed as safe for fish, water critters and excellent for stimulating water plants.

Within 2-3 weeks of starting the daily dosing according to the bottle my newts started acting differently. I spotted a couple on land which had been somewhat rare and thought optimistically that my son and I were going to get lucky and experience some newt lovin and maybe some babies. I could not have been further from the truth. I started removing dead newts and a visit to a local aquarium store informed me that the product in liquid CO2 is a form of formaldehyde that breaks down organic matter in the tank thus increasing CO2.

In an effort to create a better living space for my little guys I ended up with a newt death camp. Ashamed to be responsible for their deaths I wanted to post this as a warning to any other well intended aqua-scapers on here.

 

[Jennewt]

So sorry Thank you for posting.

 

[jpmtotoro]

I wanted to post this up incase it hadn't been mentioned before and to spare anyone else the horror show I created for my newts.

I had a happy collection of 8 living in a simple temp tank for a year with no issues. During that time I built what I thought would be a much more natural environment for them with fish, snails, shrimp, clams and a moss laden, orchid filled terrestial section for some matching dart frogs. The Strauchii newts and the ranitomeya vanzolinis nicely matched and seemed to be doing excellent in the enclosure. What didn't seem to be thriving was the aquatic plants. In lieu of a true CO2 system I opted to try out API liquid CO2 - billed as safe for fish, water critters and excellent for stimulating water plants.

Within 2-3 weeks of starting the daily dosing according to the bottle my newts started acting differently. I spotted a couple on land which had been somewhat rare and thought optimistically that my son and I were going to get lucky and experience some newt lovin and maybe some babies. I could not have been further from the truth. I started removing dead newts and a visit to a local aquarium store informed me that the product in liquid CO2 is a form of formaldehyde that breaks down organic matter in the tank thus increasing CO2.

In an effort to create a better living space for my little guys I ended up with a newt death camp. Ashamed to be responsible for their deaths I wanted to post this as a warning to any other well intended aqua-scapers on here.

glutaraldehyde is the chemical, I think.

look into CO2 injection instead of a chemical. The chemicals can sometimes work, but I have seen more trouble than success with them. And the bit of success that is had is countered by a high expense.

on a side note, you'd really only need CO2 if you had pretty high lighting (and most people don't, even if they think they do). I'm talking like 330 watts of compact fluorescent or T5HO over a 90 gallon tank, high. If you are interested in growing lush plants, I'd suggest strolling over to plantedtank.net and troll that forum. excellent source of information for growing green stuff!

thanks for the warning about the chemical additive. Hopefully others will be careful when using fertilizers. (the general key is to start low, dose regularly, and do regular water changes, and test, test, test the water to avoid buildup). small amount of additives are great for the plants... high amount of additives kills anything that moves.

 

[Azhael]

What is remarkable is that nothing had happened before that given that the poor things were kept with fish and at dendrobatid temp ranges (i expect).
Why would you think that them going terrestrial would have anything to do with reproduction?
I´m sorry, i don´t mean to be overly rude, but it seems like you neglected to research your newt´s housing requirements and their basic biology. The mixture of species was terrible...the conditions that the newts must have experienced for that year would have been highly inadequate. I´m sorry you lost the newts, but i´m not willing to ignore the neglect and the bad conditions even before you introduced dangerous chemicals.
If you wanted to provide better conditions for them you should have started by giving them apropriate housing, with no fish and not sharing the same conditions as a tropical frog...
I realise i´m being somewhat tough on you but i want to make it clear that there are more lessons to be learned from this story other than just not adding liquid CO2 to a tank.

 

[Rupert]

Even CO2 in its gas form, when injected in the water, is not very favorable for newts.

My colleague tried the CO2 injection via diffusing device, and the moment the gas bubbles started popping ALL the cynops orientalis scrambled for land.

When I heard it I assumed that oxygen levels in water is inverse to the CO2 level in the water volume.