Can I Ask A Silly Question About Bubbles?

[cheenickle]

Hello there!

I'm still learning every day how best to care for my tropical fish and don't want to muck up by not knowing the answer to the most basic of questions!


I used to leave a few inches gap at the top of my 25L tank (to allow for water to rise when i was putting my hand in to drop off cucumber for my codfish or re-arrange ornaments), but the sound of the trickling water from my filter was like torture to my ears! i'm a really bad sleeper and my tank is right next to my bed! i got in the habit of wearing ear plugs (ha ha) but was surprised when a friend of mine said that she has her tank filled right up so that there's no trickling noise. she couldn't believe i'd been driving myself mad like this for months!!

so for the past week or so, i've had my tank filled right up. ahhh bliss! however, my boyfriend (who kept tropical fish for years as a child and bought me my tank) was horrified when i told him. he said that it's the bubbles created by the water trickling into the tank that give the fish their oxygen! i have no idea who is speaking sense (my friend or my boyfriend) and would really appreciate some advice!

apologies in advance for my stupidity, but i couldn't find the answer by googling it. i just want a happy, healthy tank, so don't mind looking like an eejit!

 

[minxfishy]

haha, well in general the flow from the filter into the tank needs to create some water movement to create oxygenation of the water, it doesnt need to be a waterfall though.

 

[Davo86]

Basicly the more of a splash you make at the surface the more air is produced for the fish however as long as there is circulation you are fine to increase the level above the waterline, if you look in any heavily planted tank you won't see any splashing water or multiple bubbles at the surface.

 

[doresy]

There is only one place where oxygen is dissolved into the water and that is at the surface. The bubbles are not in the water long enough to allow gas transference. The bubbles from an air stone only serve 2 purposes really. 1, decoration for you and fun for some fish. 2, as the bubbles break the water surface they create ripples thus increasing the surface area which means more area for gas transference

Ripples from your filter will do the same job.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, dorsey is correct - nice description!

Its a myth that bubbles have enough increased surface area to increase oxygenation significantly. They are not in contact with the water long enough. Only surface area and resonable surface movement (as dorsey says) are significant. Surface water that is bubbly and noisy does not do an appreciably better job than surface water that is just silent but moving quickly.

So bottom line is that you can sleep more easily! In my son's bedroom tank what I do is to reach in periodically and adjust the spraybar so that its just under the surface, pushing lines of surface water out from the output holes, but not causing the surface to break and make noise.

~~waterdrop~~