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Added aeration?


doncb

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I am setting up a 24g DX and it's in its first week of cycling. In my old 10g tank I had a skimmer which I figured served to add additional oxygen to the water as it skimmed. Would there be any benifit to adding an airstone to the 3rd bay in the cube to add some aeration? The cube will be a mixed invert, fish tank.

 

Thanks for the help & any suggestions!

 

15 lbs arag sand w/ 15lbs LS in tank.

24 lbs LR in tank (10 was from an existing tank).

Sponge in 1st filter bay

2 lbs broken LR in 2nd filter bay.

Heater & pump in 3rd filter bay.

Using Seachem Stability.

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audiocontrol

the air stone doesnt add any "oxygen" to the aquarium...if you take an 02 reading in an aquarium with an airstone and one without an airstone, it will be identical.

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audiocontrol

oh yea, btw, there really isnt any benefit to adding an airstone, except for water movement...plant life is what will give you the o2

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What????

 

Whether or not an airstone will increase your O2 is completely dependent on what kind of aeration you already have. If you throw an airstone in a stagnant tank, it will DEFINITELY increase the O2 levels. Saying it doesn't make any difference is completely wrong. Plants are not the only source of O2... not only that but plants will remove O2 at night.

 

The main advantage of having good aeration through the tank is it keeps O2 and CO2 in stable equilibrium between the air and the water. It will minimize pH swings over the course of a day and keep stable O2 levels. I wouldn't recommend an airstone simply because they cause a lot of salt creep. I would recommend a skimmer though.

 

P.S. I had a tank that didn't have a skimmer on it, and it didn't have any other aeration exept the contact of surface water with the air. When I added a skimmer (which aerates the water) the pH change during the day went from 7.8-8.5 to 8.0-8.3 in one day. If you DON'T believe this stuff, go talk to some planted tank gurus. They can tell you exactly the difference it makes. When you have huge plant masses in a tank, it is very easy to see the huge swings caused by not having aeration.

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audiocontrol

first of all, planted tank aquarists inject CO2 into their aquariums, so O2 is a different topic to them considering bubbles. second of all, Take a reading of 02 with an airstone in a saltwater aquarium, and one without. I will guarantee you there will be no difference. The second the bubbles pop at the surface, any 02 that was in the water has left. Plants on the other hand, release 02 at a molecular level, which takes nearly 300 times the amount of time to dissapate from solution. And third, if you have a stagnant reef for any reason, 02 levels will be the least of your problems. And as far as a nano-cube skimmer goes, sure you can put a skimmer on it and would benefit, but it will only benefit the tank if you have 3+ fish swimmin around.

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BKtomodachi

audiocontrol... pipe down man, you're wrong!

 

CO2 isnt a factor for SW. With enough serface movement to give you exygen exchange, you dont need to worry about it.

 

The air bubles themselves arent what give the oxygen, its the surface movement of the water ripples that it creates.

 

You also prove yourself wrong, becuase, belive it or not, some SW aquarists use ONLY airstones for aeration/water movement. You're saying they dont even need it for oxygen? Yeah, right.

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audiocontrol

"The air bubles themselves arent what give the oxygen, its the surface movement of the water ripples that it creates." That is what i was trying to say...

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