Co2 And Air Lines

[johnelka]

i was told to remove my air pump when adding a co2 kit as the air bubles in my tank would remove co2. every time i remove my air line my discus rise to the surface and breathe heavy within a hour . what is happening john

 

[Dave Spencer]

Using an air line with CO2 is counter productive. The surface agitation will drive off a large amount of the CO2.

Your problem would appear to be that your system is producing too much CO2 for your set up, hence your fish gasping at the surface. I don`t know much about yeast based systems, if that is what you have, but pressurised systems are far more controllable.

 

[mr williams]

i was told to remove my air pump when adding a co2 kit as the air bubles in my tank would remove co2. every time i remove my air line my discus rise to the surface and breathe heavy within a hour . what is happening john

How big is your tank? It seems that you have just enough oxygen with the air bubbles running. I used to have the same problem when my tank was overstocked. My fish would gasp at the surface if the air bubbles stopped.

 

[xoedusk]

I can think of two things that may be happening. Please, anyone correct me if I'm wrong.

1. Turning off the bubbler may be reducing the amount of oxygen in your tank. This may happen if you are overstocked or have poor filtration. If this is the case, you can test it by turning both the CO2 and bubbler off. If your discus rises for air, then you know it's a lack of oxygen and not too much CO2.
2. Fish take in oxygen and breath out carbon dioxide. There needs to be a marked difference between the CO2 concentration in their gills and in the water in order for them to exhale. Your CO2 system, then, may be producing too much CO2, as Dave said, and therefor your discus can't exhale properly. Now surface agitation from bubblers reduce the overall concentration of CO2 in your tank (similar to swishing around a can of pop and watching the bubbles come up), bringing the CO2 concentration in the tank to atmospheric conditions. If this is the case, lower your CO2 output, if possible, and/or turn your bubbler on to low and see what happens.

What type of CO2 system are you using?

 

[johnelka]

my tank is 180 litre and i am now guessing from what i am told that i'm over stocked as the co2 is a yeast kit and has not really started to work yet . i have 8 discus in this tank but they are not fully grown 3-5 inch . the fillter is a large external canister which should have no problem . i can move some of these fish to other tanks for now ,which are setup for breeding but should i now think of a larger tank. does everyone agree , am i over stocked!

 

[Dave Spencer]

At 180l you might have to start thinking of a pressurised system for stability.