Is an air pump necessary?

[guppymonkey]

I have a 20 gallon tank with 5 fish in it (3 guppies and 2 swordtails). I have a power filter going but I don't have an air pump. Do I need to have an airpump hooked up or would there be enough exchange of air on the surface to begin with?

 

[Alien Anna]

An air-pump is an essential for any kind of emergency, for running a sponge filter in a hospital tank, for running an air-stone in a bucket while you do a total strip down and about a dozen other uses. I have several - I sort of "acquire" them from various places, usually second-hand. People chuck out pumps just because they need a new diaphragm (which costs pennies and isn't a big deal).

I would strongly recommend you pick one up on Ebay or in your LFS sale sometime. Get some air-line, some air-stones, an air-line valve and a cheap sponge filter while you're there and put it in your fishie "first aid kit". It won't cost much and you will definitely get some use out of it. Battery powered ones are very popular at the moment, for obvious reasons - they're going for stupid prices since everyone's scared of power outages, but if you see one for a sensible price, snap it up.

 

[Inchworm]

Alien Anna,

Please help me by explaining a term that I've seen used in this
forum, but do not understand.

For example, you mentioned a "sponge filter"---do you mean what we
(in New York) call a box filter? When I saw this term used, I thought
it might refer to a type of power filter that I use that has an actual
sponge in it as opposed to a power filter that uses a bought cartridge
thingy that fits into a slot in the filter. A box filter actually goes
into the tank rather than hang off the side or back. (And does a good
job,too, I might add!)

I agree with you about the value of having an air pump. But here,
they are either gigantic and really expensive or tiny little things
that are not capable of doing much more than running one airstone or
one box filter and parts are getting hard to find. Filter floss is
getting scarce, too. All that the stores want to sell are the more
expensive power filters and, of course, the expensive cartridges that
fit in them!

 

[Alien Anna]

Inchworm - a sponge filter is just a little sponge on a pipe that is driven by a small air-pump.

It's only small, ideal for a hospital tank. I've had one support a 20 gal tank before now, with half a dozen fish in it. The important thing is that you leave the sponge bit in a matured tank when you're not using it. You're supposed to throw them out but I usually sterilise it in baby bottle steriliser solution and then re-cycle it.

A box filter and floss, or even a box filter with old dissected filter inserts stuffed inside it (like I've got in one of my tanks) is another alternative. A friend of mine uses pan-scourers - he boils them first to get rid of any nasty chemicals and then stuffs them in his filters. Seems to work, so I'm not going to knock it!

Air-pumps don't have to be huge, powerful things - a simple air-stone or two is perfectly adequate to keep even a moderate sized tank aerated, on a temporary basis, since it's the disruption to the surface that causes the oxygenation, not the bubbles coming out of the air-stone! To quote a very good LFS guy today "Why's everyone obsessed with having a tsunami in their tank these days?". You don't need a 1000 watt powerhead for that!

As for difficulties obtaining stuff, I've noticed that US mail order sites seem to have an awful lot more stock than the European ones so I'm sure you can use that route.

 

[Inchworm]

Alien Anna

Wow!!! I've never seen one of those little sponge filters before. I will print out a picture of it and take it to my LFS during the week. It looks like a handy thing to have on hand.

Do you know if it would be safe to use in a tank with newly hatched or young fry? If so, it would be just the thing I'm looking for. I've been trying to raise gouramis and cory cats and a regular filter is just too powerful to use while they are small. I use an airstone, but if I could have filtration too it would be better.

As for filter floss--I've been buying polyester quilt batting at the fabric shop. For just a few dollars you can get a ton of it! It works just fine, too. Sometimes I use it in the power filters with a small bag of ammo-chips instead of the pre-made cartridges.

I'll have to look into the mail order houses. I haven't done this so far--just shopped locally. Can you suggest any good ones?

Thanks again for the info about the sponge filters

 

[Alien Anna]

Inchworm - sponge filters are just perfect for fry tanks. I used them when I was breeding golden apple snails (the only aquatic creature I've been able to breed to date). Looking at their construction, which is very simplistic, I wonder if you could DIY something similar yourself? I'll see if I can sketch an outline of its construction and post it to the DIY forum.

Great idea for the filter floss!

Here's a site I came across with some interesting similar gizmos:

World Pet Store

Interestingly for UK people, they actually sell to UK and they do the Hang-on-the-side Aquaclear filters that we can't get (and they've got a sale on).

 

[Inchworm]

Alien Annie

Thank you again for all your wonderful help! I put the link into "favorites" and will spend some time with it later this evening. And I will look for your sketch.

I'm also glad to know that you know about snails. I'll be writing a post later on about a problem I'm having with mine. Please keep an eye open for it.

Thanks again!