Aquatic Plant O2

Oxygen For Aquarium Plants

Oxygen is generally not thought of as an element essential to healthy plant growth. Like fish and most other living organisms, aquatic plants require this gas for respiration. This is the cellular function whereby carbohydrates are consumed to fuel new growth and facilitate biological processes. Thankfully lack of oxygen (O2) is generally not a problem for aquarium plants. As long as your aquarium fish are still alive there is enough oxygen in the water for plants also.

Respiration in plants occurs at a fairly even level during both night and day. It utilises the carbohydrates produced by photosynthesis to build and repair the various tissues of the submerged plants. During the day plants will give of oxygen as a bi product of photosynthesis and thereby produce more O2 than they consume. This is what has lead to the myth that plants do not require oxygen.

While the dark hours dominate plants stop producing oxygen. In fact respiring plants will release carbon dioxide during this time which is a bi-product of the process. This apparent abundance of carbon dioxide will rarely cause any problems for your fish as oxygen will diffuse through the water surface to replace the O2 being used by the aquatic plants.