Fwd: Re: Fwd: Re: Biogas

["Ed Pon" <edpon@hotmail.com>]

Thomas wrote:
>Hi Ed,
>
>what you mentioned isn't comparable to CO2-production in a bottle. I 
personal
>don't even use blackwater extracts for my fish-why should i drink it - 
beer is
>much cheaper.
>
>We're using biological processes  in filters - this isn't natural too 
but
>necessary. We keep to many fish in little tank volumes -also not 
natural compared
>to habitats. Biofilters, peat, ro devices, ion exchange resins and some 
more
>sophisticated devices are substitutes a way to make it practical. Why 
not using
>biogas to produce carbon dioxide-just one more artificial method.
>
Thomas--This topic is quite interesting, and I'm not trying to knock it.  
It was mentioned in an earlier part of this thread that some care needed 
to be taken to make sure other resultant materials such as alcohol and I 
thought I saw mention of sulfide gases (I'n not sure) don't get into the 
aquarium.  I think, on another thread, that someone thought that too 
much CO2 had been produced causing a catastrophe in their tank.  It 
seems to me to be another parameter that needs to be watched and 
adjusted--and if not watched, has the potential to kill your tank.

I'm not sure what's in club soda, I thought some other people might know 
on this list-but if it were just carbon dioxide and water, then it would 
seem to be something safer to use.  I don't know if food-grade stuff is 
safe for apistos--most of this is just curiosity on my part.

Several years ago, I attended a talk that Al Castro (writes column in 
Aquarium Magazaine and former fresh water curator of fish at Steinhardt 
Aquarium in San Francisco) was giving at a local aquarium society.  Al 
was talking about strategies to breeding certain difficult to breed 
fish.  Al mentioned a tetra that was not known to breed in captivity and 
that while he was working around his fish, he knocked a cup of coffee 
over and spilled it into the tank.  The tetra spawned the next day.  Is 
it the caffeine, the decreased ph, or does coffee contain some other 
substance that acted as a trigger?  Was there anything in coffee that 
was harmful to the fish?  

A large part of my interest in this hobby is discovery and learning.  
That is probably one of my major motivations for following this forum. 
There are still many mysteries in tropical fish hobby--How to keep 
certain fish alive--How to get certain fish to breed (i.e. clown 
loaches).

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