Airstones And Plant Questions

[omordn]

Hi Everyone,

I am new to this hobby and I have my tank set up. I have:

28 gallon tank
marineland power filter
a 3' airstone
2 albinos (cleaner fish)
2 angel fish
1 gouramie
3 platy's
1 red eye tetra
with 6 live plants (not sure of the names)

my question is... do i need to run my airstones 24/7? i noticed that when i put my fish in my tank... the majority of them were swimming at the bottom of the tank except the angel fish. I increased my temperature to 80-82 F and added in the airstones because i was concerned that perhaps the fish weren't getting enough oxygen. As far as my plants, they are new and I am not sure if perhaps they are going into shock right now considering they are under a new environment or perhaps they need CO2 because they are losing their color. In return, they are getting brown spots. For some reason, I have been reading about CO2 for your live plants but I am a bit skeptical on it.

I hope someone can help me with my conerns.

 

[charlie4486]

well airstones don't really supply oxygen. aggitation of the waters surface is what releases oxygen into your tank. if your water was low in oxygen your fish would be swimming toward the top and gasping for air. your tetra might be staying on the bottom because they generally like to be in groups of at least 6. what kind of gourami do you have? also most importantly, did you cycle your tank. if so what are your water parameter?
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
PH

 

[omordn]

Hello Charlie, Thank you for your response.

I understand the whole concept on producing oxygen. If I remember correctly, one of my platy's along with the angel fish were at the top of my tank and they still are along with the red eye tetra. I did cycle my tank... perhaps not as long as everyone recommends. That was my mistake. My water parameters are good though... at least that is what I think.

Here are my parameters:

pH about 7.5
NO3 about 5.0
Ammonia 0
NO2 0

One last question, do you recommend me to run my airstone all day?

Thank you once again.

 

[Meds081603]

Hopefully a mod will move this to the planted forum. You will have much better luck asking this question there. IMO planted tanks should not have airstones. Airstones reduce the co2 levels in your tank. We keep our angels at 80-82 with no airstones and no issues with not enough oxygen.