Air Bubbles

[DaveA76]

are air bubble (from an air stone) actually of any use in a tank or are they just a thing to admire, also would i lightly planted tank be ok with a small airstone in ?

 

[8inary]

hi dave - this has actually been addressed quite a few times in this forum:

unfortunatley, many people believe bubbles put oxygen in the water, this is not really correct, oxygen is created at surface level by means of disrupting the surface.

if you place your filter's outlet pipe so it skims the surface, this will create the oxygen needed in the tank, the bubbles if violent enough, will also do a similar thing on a smaller level 'depending on your airpump'

 

[fatheadminnow]

An air stone is a must if your filter does not create anysurface agitation.

Water movement at the surface created by the air stone is going to provide a healthy amount of O2 for your fish, and it will maintain a Co2 level of 6-8 ppm for some plants.

Oxygen is put into the water through surface agitation, not the bubbles that transverse through the water.

-FHM

 

[Macko1968]

Air bubbles will also help circulate the water from the lowest level of your tank, ensuring that the whole volume of water is sufficiently aerated. More than anything though, all my fish love the bubbles & play in them all the time.

 

[8inary]

i must admit, i insist on having an airpump 'although i have 3 large canister filters' although the airpump is pretty big, pushing out 4000lts/hour

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLGa8d9L1SY

didnt have it turned fully on at the time of the vid, looks pretty mad now.

touching on what macko said - i totally agree, i have aircurtains in places that would ordinarily be stagnant, an aircurtain helps circulate the water around the whole tank, rather than having stagnant spots - plus helps moves debris from caves/dwelling areas!

 

[waterdrop]

Air bubbles will also help circulate the water from the lowest level of your tank, ensuring that the whole volume of water is sufficiently aerated. More than anything though, all my fish love the bubbles & play in them all the time.

It -is- kind of interesting to think about it from this aspect. I wonder just how bad the little pockets of stillness would be in various places near the substrate in a tall rectangular tank with only a spraybar roughing the surface... If we take a look in the planted forum writings, we've got pretty good evidence from Dave, Aaron and Andy that little still areas can collect enough "below-zero-level-ammonia" to be a trigger to algae. They're always writing about the benefits of getting a powerhead (perhaps one of those "spreader" powerheads where the generated water stream is not so narrow) down in there to supplement the overall water movement in addition to even the higher flow rate filters.

If you've got a tank with not very fast plant growth/volume, and you get that ammonia trigger thing going from not enough water movement and then add to that enough iron in the water (either from iron in fertilizers or the tap water or whatever) and enough of that lower spectrum UV-purple-blue light (either from sunlight) or sources that include enough of that bluish light that can get the Fe++, Fe+++ thing going, you've got a rather nice algae recipe I think. Food for thought.

In the aquarium, surface disturbance should be thought of as an area of compromise between gaining enough O2 and not losing too much CO2, assuming the tank has both fish and plants. Bubbles are aesthetic, given that bubble rise time is too quick for the extra surface area of the collective bubbles to allow for additional gaseous exchange beyond what the tank surface is accomplishing. But these "extras" of "raising some of the deeper water to the surface", of "disturbing the surface if you have no other surface disturbers" and of "providing play for fish" are positive things to think about along with the negatives of "CO2 loss" and "noise" (either pump noise, or water splash.)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[8inary]

whilst i have 3 large canister filters, pushing out circa 8000ltrs/hour, i still have the airpump pushing 4000ltrs/hour, this is a lot, and moves more surface than the filters, as 4000ltrs/hour is more than enough to create surface disruption on a large scale, compared to say a normal airpump

 

[warakawa]

whilst i have 3 large canister filters, pushing out circa 8000ltrs/hour, i still have the airpump pushing 4000ltrs/hour, this is a lot, and moves more surface than the filters, as 4000ltrs/hour is more than enough to create surface disruption on a large scale, compared to say a normal airpump

I am absolutely speechless, i feel like making love to ur tank

 

[twin54]

As well if you have white clouds they like to use the fast moving water of the bubbles as there own personal roller coaster! Mine go back and forth going up and down riding the bubbles current for hours on end! I laugh so hard watching them go!