Plants and airstones?

[Jen]

I heard from a friend of mine that if you are doing a planted tank that you shouldnt have an airstone. Is this true? I have had a few plants in there for the past year and am looking at making it totally planted by the end of the summer. I have had 3 airstones in the whole time, and it doenst seem to affect the fish at all.
I would love to turn the pump off as it a noisy as all get out, but I want to make sure my fish have all the O2 that they need.

Any advice?

 

[Cute-n-Fury]

yeah ive heard that two i got advised from a lfs not to use one with heavly planted tank but i dunno any help?

Dan

 

[Nisha]

Airstones aren't good for heavily planted tanks because it makes the water lose Carbon dioxide (CO2) very quickly. The plants need the CO2 to grow well.
Your fish should be fine as long as you have a good filtration system in place. Keep an eye on your fish though if you intend to add a CO2 system at any point.

HTH
~Nisha

 

[Discomafia]

Surface agitation is what dissipates the CO2 and that's also how O2 is absorbed into the water. If you put an airstone in your filter, (Penguin's can, as they have holes in the top) you will prolly. get a good O2 content in your tank w/o dissipating the CO2. I know that it's possible to get 100% saturation of both O2 and CO2 in planted aquariums, so is my idea a good one? Anyone?