Airpumps...

[joeybear]

Thought of another question...

I have brought an air pump and airstone, but I am not sure what to do about the length of time we have it on for.
I have read 24/7 BUT I live in a rural village and we do have a few power cuts a year, so I was told just to put it on a couple of hours each day, so the fish still carry enough oxygen. Can anyone tell me which is the best option?

I have a 300litre tank with an Aqua One Aquis 1250 filter, so presumably that will help agitate the water surface for them?

Thanks in advance

 

[Schmill]

Hey joeybear, don't suppose it's an Aqua One tank as well is it? Do you know which one (not that it affects the answers here, just for my own curiosity).

The fact that you have powercuts doesn't really affect whether you leave your airpump on or not - lol
I have one in my tank, and leave it on 24/7, some people don't have one at all. If your filter flow is causing ripples on the surface of the water you generally don't NEED an airpump, but I like it for decoration, and they can help when fishless cycling.

So at the end of the day it really comes down to you whether you want to use one or not

All I would say is that if you do use one, invest in a 'check-valve'. This is a one-way valve that usually costs a couple of £, and fits inline between the pump and the tank. It allows the air into the tank when the pump is running, but stops the airline turning into a water syphon when it's not running and emptying your tank inot your airpump. They are really only NEEDED if you site your airpump at a level that is below the water level of the tank, but I tend to always fit one just to be on the safe side I honestly don't understand why manufacturers don't include them with their airpumps...

 

[joeybear]

It's an amazon tank, bow fronted, looks very nice in the lounge, but a bit empty at the mo!

I think the guy I was talking to was over complicating things as he was very technical seeing as I had explained I was a newbie. He said giving them the air bubbles all the time reduces the amount of oxygen a fish carries, so if it went off, they might struggle. He compaired it to someone who lives on a mountain doing a work out, but then me going up a mountain and trying to do one!? Hmm......

So either way, if I put it on 4 hours a day or 24 hours a day, it won't make too much difference?

Forgot to say, I got the check valve with it and everything else they had going, lol. Airstones, t bar, clamp and pipe.
I did buy a barrel for it to go in, but we are taking it back and going a bit more natural. If I just have the stone on the end, do I bury it a bit under the gravel, or will it lay along the bottom on it's own?

 

[Schmill]

Does sound a bit like he was over complicating things. I've never heard of a fish 'get used' to oxygen levels before - lol
The thing is, if there is some surface aggitation in the tank, then that will surfice for the gas exchange to get teh oxygen into the water that the fish need. In some circumstances with heavy stock, or bad water you might NEED the airpump, but if it's not running a filter or anything as far as I'm concerned they are just decorative.
I used to have mine running during the day, then switch off for the evening as it was a little noisy in the lounge, then back on around midnight (on a timer), but now I just have it on 24/7 as I found it actually quietened down after running for several hours.

Glad you got the check-valve, well worth it
As for the stone, is it a long one, (6" / 12" etc), or just one of the little ones around 1" that push onto the pipe end. With the larger ones they may lay on the gravel, but the smaller ones may float. I tend to use the suction cups and airline clips on the inside of the glass anyway to hold the pipe nice and tidy down to the stone. Totally up to you whether you put it under the gravel a bit, or above the gravel. I found that although it was nice to put mine under the gravel to hide it, it did mean that the fine bubbles joined together and became bigger bubbles, so I dug it out again - lol

Only other thing I'd say, (depending how much you want to fiddle around!), is anywhere that I have my airline 'corner' underwater such as from the vertical drop to the horizontal run to the airstone, I use one of the plastic elbows as I find if I just allow the pipe to bend sometimes it kinks and reduces the airflow. Your LFS probably sells them either loose, or in a pack where you will normally get a couple of 'elbows' and a couple of 'stright couples'. Again, totally not a 'requirement', just a preference of mine

 

[joeybear]

Thanks again
Well we initially brought the small (roughly 1 inch) ones as they were to go inside the barrel, but i'll but a bigger bar, maybe 6 inch tomorrow, and i'll ask about the suctions while i'm there.
I'm so glad I found this forum today, as it is a bit of a drive to the local fish store, and as I don't drive, we can only go on my fiances day off, so I don't want to miss anything we might need out.

 

[Schmill]

No worries, glad to help.

So that you know what I am waffling about, on this page you can see the 'elbow' things at the top of the page, and the suction cup clips about 4 items up from the bottom
Oh yes, and the other 'connector' that comes in the sets that I forgot about is the 'T' piece connectors, useful if you have one stone and a twin outlet airpump

Connectors, clips, & stones

 

[joeybear]

Awesome. I was going to order them online, but postage is a bit steep. Having just read the review section on here, we'll swap the gravel (we want finer than we brought) at WoW then I think we'll take a trip to the Goldfish Bowl in Oxford as well, so i'm sure we can pick up everything we need tomorrow. For the matter of pence i'd rather stock up and keep them as spares, than having to do another journey to get them, as i'm very meticulous about things being straight!


P.s. You have the tank I had my heart set on!!

 

[OldMan47]

JoeyBear, the air pump is totally optional if you have good circulation from your filter. If your filter is run by the air pump, it will need to be on 24/7.

You need to consider how you are using the air in the tank. If you use it to run one of those decorations designed to move when you put bubbles to it, you will want to be able to adjust the air flow with a valve or a knob on the air pump. If you are running an air stone, you may need to throttle the flow if the air stone is small but probably won't need to throttle much if the air stone is large. The check valve needs to be put between the air pump and the tank if the air pump isn't higher up than the top of the tank. Since most people end up with the pump on the stand somewhere, it is almost always needed. To be sure the check valve goes into the tubing right, blow through the check valve. If your ears explode you are blowing from the air stone end. If you can blow through easily, you are blowing from the air pump end.

 

[raptorrex]

Thought of another question...

I have brought an air pump and airstone, but I am not sure what to do about the length of time we have it on for.
I have read 24/7 BUT I live in a rural village and we do have a few power cuts a year, so I was told just to put it on a couple of hours each day, so the fish still carry enough oxygen. Can anyone tell me which is the best option?

I have a 300litre tank with an Aqua One Aquis 1250 filter, so presumably that will help agitate the water surface for them?

Thanks in advance

if power cuts are a problem, i would suggest you worry about heat and your filter, not your air pump.

an air stone and pump are not, actually, needed in any tank. for the most part they are just for show, adding little O2 to the water. its true that warm water holds less O2 than cold water. but the fish we keep in tropical tanks, are designed to cope with the O2 levels their environment produces. on or off, unless the fish enjoy playing in the flow, they will not even notice the difference.

 

[Schmill]

Awesome. I was going to order them online, but postage is a bit steep. Having just read the review section on here, we'll swap the gravel (we want finer than we brought) at WoW then I think we'll take a trip to the Goldfish Bowl in Oxford as well, so i'm sure we can pick up everything we need tomorrow. For the matter of pence i'd rather stock up and keep them as spares, than having to do another journey to get them, as i'm very meticulous about things being straight!


P.s. You have the tank I had my heart set on!!

Yeah, sorry, that was more of an example of what I was talking about, rather than somewhere to get them from. The online stores tend to have a standard delivery charge, so unless you are ordering plenty, or saving a lot of money, it's not worth it all the time. E-bay can be quite useful for things like that, such as the suction clips, if travelling is tricky for you, but your LFS will likely have them cheaper anyway:

Suction Clips on Ebay

Thanks for your comment on my tank, I have gravel in there at the moment, but similar to you I think it is larger than I want really, but fish arrive Friday, and no time to change now, so I'll live with it and see if I'm happy and if not then I'll change it to something else in a couple of months - lol
It was because of my tank that I asked which one you had as I know the newer versions of mine also come with the Aquis 1250 filter.
Stubeedoo on here also has the same tank as me, but he has the same filter as you, so if you have any questions regarding your filter he's going to be a good bet . He also has a 'fishless cycle' log ongoing in the "New to the hobby" section, so you might like to have a look in on that

If you are just setting the tank up, is this your first tank? Are you aware of Fishless cycling etc? If not there is a pinned topic on it at the top of the "New to the hobby" section.
I don't know your situation, but I got so involved with the airpump issue that I forgot to ask and I'd hate for you to come back from the LFS with fish to put in a 'virgin' tank, only to later find, (or more likely be referred to), the fishless cycling article

 

[joeybear]

if power cuts are a problem, i would suggest you worry about heat and your filter, not your air pump.

That worries me too, but they way the man said it, I had visions of all the fish at the surface gasping for air! They are never too long, half an hour max and that's only once every couple of months, so I don't think it would be long enough to change anything too much. I hope anyway.

 

[Schmill]

I think both the filter and the temperature should be fine being off for half an hour. Thats only going ot be similar to switching off when you have a rummage around in the tank or a gravel-vac

 

[joeybear]

If you are just setting the tank up, is this your first tank? Are you aware of Fishless cycling etc? If not there is a pinned topic on it at the top of the "New to the hobby" section.
I don't know your situation, but I got so involved with the airpump issue that I forgot to ask and I'd hate for you to come back from the LFS with fish to put in a 'virgin' tank, only to later find, (or more likely be referred to), the fishless cycling article

I am aware yes. I have just read your cycling blog actually. I know it is the best route to take, but I really don't know what we are going to do. I'll have to speak to the other half later, as it is his tank.
We were going to go down the nutrafin cycle route and wait a couple of weeks, then get something hard like a few platty's, providing the water tests were ok of course.

Arrrgghhhhh All these decisions to make and if we get it wrong it's so hard to start over!!! lol. More reading to do I think, where has the day gone?!?

 

[waterdrop]

Unfortunately, this forum has a long trail of disappointed beginners reporting that putting bottled bacteria like "nutrafin cycle" in their new tank ended up being the same as leaving it sitting there with tap water, no effect whatsoever except to their pocketbook.

Likewise, I think "fishless cycling" and "fish-in cycling" are often presented as two paths in the woods where you are making a trivial choice of which path to take a stroll on. That couldn't be more misleading in my opinion. You have a 300L tank there, that's a -lot- of water. Its quite easy for fish-in cycling to "get away from you" and to find yourself changing large quantities of water to save the fishes lives. Even if you have a fancy Python device for water changes, this is very hard and tedious work. If you are using buckets its a nightmare.

Given the availability of a procedure like fishless cycling, its also the opinion of many here that fish-in cycling is much more often a thing that one does "after one has made a big mistake and bought fish without a working biofilter." That's not to say that fish-in cycling cannot be done well. It can, but its tricky and carries more risk and often shortens the lives of the fish that go through it dispite the best efforts of the fishkeeper.

Meanwhile, fishless cycling, while having its stretches of bordom in the extreme and its one tricks and difficulties, can be fascinating and is very good at giving beginners the hands-on experience that makes them aware of the core water-chem skills of the hobby. It also can afford a valuable period of interaction here in the forum for questions, learning and work on stocking plans, which takes about the same length of time to get worked out for a beginner.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[joeybear]

To be sure the check valve goes into the tubing right, blow through the check valve. If your ears explode you are blowing from the air stone end. If you can blow through easily, you are blowing from the air pump end.

Thanks for this, just connecting it now, really great advice.