Air Stone Question

[Ozzy Ozborne]

Hi there,

I am new to the hobby and have set up a tropical aquarium >it is a 180 litre jewell.
I have put in an airstone with pump and need to know if it should be on 24 hors a day or should i set it up with the lighting for 12 hours per day?
I have got plants in and approx 15 mixed fish.

thanks

Ozzy

 

[Truck]

you dont need an airpump. you can run it as long as you want

 

[Ozzy Ozborne]

thanks,

i have bought a seperate airpump and its in the tank running
i read somewhere that if you have it on all the time it can cause a problem with live plants and too much oxggen?
Does this make sense?
i have set it up on a timer with the lighting for 12 hours per day
Is this correct?

thanks

 

[Truck]

its fine with plants, but are you dosing CO2? if not then dont worry

 

[three-fingers]

Air pumps basically circulate the water through the movement of bubbles, and they drive off CO2 and will sometimes result in more oxygen in the water due to the surface agitation of the bubbles creating a higher surface area for gas transfer to happen over.

If you have lots of live pants and are striving for fast growth, it's best to leave it off when the lights are on, as this will leave more CO2 in the water for the plants to use.

The plants will create more oxygen for the fish anyway, but oxygen levels aren't anything to worry about unless your tank is oddly shaped (which a low surface area compared to volume), has too many fish in it or the temperature is too high. You would know if the oxygen levels were too low because the fish would be near the surface breathing heavily.

It's best to run an airpump whenever the lights are turned off. Because during this time, the plants don't need CO2 but will still need oxygen the same as the fish.

But overall it's not too important, if you leave it on 24/7 it's not the end of the world, you might just get a bit slower plant growth.

 

[Ozzy Ozborne]

thanks for your help

Ozzy