Can I use soda water from a sodapop machine to help my plants on occasion?

[JerryP]

Greetings,

I'm pretty new to the hobby.  I bought a couple of tanks at a garage sale, in fall of 2020.  Watching stuff grow in them the past year has been a blast.  I like guppys, mystery snails and cherry shrimp.  

Has anyone used sodawater from a pop machine in their aquarium?  I was thinking that used pop machines are pretty cheap, and pretty bullet proof.  I imagine the water input can be tap or ROI, the machine won't care.  Not sure about measuring the amount of gas going into the aquarium, nor am I sure how long it would last.  

I saw a YouTube video where a guy used bottle of soda water and that kind of got me thinking about the subject.  I looked at the bottoms of some soda water in the store and I'm not sure what they put in them besides water and gas.  

Anyway I could use some suggestions on how to set up an  initial experiment to see how it works with my tap water, plants and livestock.  

I attached a couple of pictures of my tanks.  As you can tell I have a lot to learn about aquarium plants!  

 

[Ken Burke]

I’m guessing you could, but not sure you should.  CO2 is more advanced, and comes with a fair bit of perils massive ph swings…..
 The plants in the pictures don’t need CO2 to thrive. But it looks like you have the rhizome of your Java fern buried.  That to rot, and a dead plant.  

 

 

[CT_]

One intermediate option is to hang a cup upsidedown under the water and then bubble CO2 into the cup.  You then just add CO2 to the cup every few days.  My understanding is this will raise the CO2 but not a crazy ammount so it's pretty safe.

[Hobbit]

I’ve wondered the same thing. 😄 As my signature says, I’m not afraid of experimentation, so I would probably try it! Just try it in a tank with no fish, just plants, so you can watch and learn what the pH does without suffocating your fish.

From what I understand, using CO2 tends to be a very exacting science, so my guess is this method would be okay for getting plants established in a tank, but not for long term, consistent use.

[Torrey]

Here's the lowest tech method for safely using CO2 in a tank.

I have heard of people applying soda water to areas on plants that were growing on the leaves, I have not seen this however. 

I would probably Google *peer-reviewed soda water fish tanks* or something similar to see if there's any risk for your fish.

[gardenman]

To me, the use of CO2 always comes down to do I want a plant-centric tank or a fish centric tank? I'm more fish-centric, so I don't use CO2. I keep plants that do fine without it and I'm happy, the fish are happy, and there's one less thing to worry about. 

 

[darkG]

I think that the occasional CO₂ boost isn't super helpful. Even if it is safe, I am not saying it is, my impression is that most fast acting interventions complicate things.

Maybe CT_ suggestion is a way. Or maybe you can device some dripping or slowly circulating thing that you charge with CO₂ that is  then gradually released to the rank water. But then you'd probably be better of getting a proper set-up anyway!

(I don't add CO₂ myself)

Edited January 19, 2022 by darkG