Loverly Bubbly - Or Is It?

[croggy]

Hi guys this is my first post on here i have recently started keeping fish and i have a question which may seem daft but anywho.

I have a hell of alot of air bubbles in my tank . I have my filter set up to pump in air from a pipe that runs down the backe of the tank as well as an under gravel system that pumps air up through the gravel in certain places(mainly behind my fake coral and what have you)
i set this up for looks and looks alone but now i find my water looking slightly cloudy - although it is not wityh grime but with air bubbles.

so bassically what i am trying to ask is can too much air be halmful to my fish and should i take some of the kit out?

 

[waterdrop]

Hello croggy and welcome to the beginners section!

Bubbles are completely your own choice for the look of your aquarium. They can play a role in creating some mild circulation from bottom to top of aquarium and they can create some surface water movement but both these roles are mild compared to filter spraybars (filter outputs that are directed along the surface to move the surface water) or powerheads (underwater jets that create a stronger circulation in the tank.) Surface water movement plays a much, much larger role in transferring gases between the air and the water (Oxygen and CO2 levels in the water can each independently change depending on surface water movement) than bubbles do (the additional air surface of the bubbles is rendered ineffective by the short time they exist.)

What concerns me more is whether anyone has ever offered you the opportunity to learn about the Nitrogen Cycle (from the environmental sciences) and the important role it plays in fish tanks and the filters that maintain them? A new tank will often get what we call a "bacterial bloom" which looks like some milk as been diluted in the water. This bloom is harmless and will go away, but there is a completely different issue with growing a different type of bacteria in the filter. Filters are not ready for fish when you buy them.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[croggy]

thanks all i wanted to know was that it wasn't harmful

i do have a setup for causing surface water movement so i should be o.k. there

 

[waterdrop]

I just like to type, takes my mind off real work.

 

[OldMan47]

Please do not ignore the importance of a cycled filter Croggy. Although it may be a bit off your original question, it is a very important subject that will be dealt with whether or not you take an active role in making it go the right way. I have a link in my signature area to the fishless cycle thread, the fish-in thread and the beginner's resource center. All of them may give you some insight into your present tank's conditions and things you may want to change about your fish care.
Back on the subject of air stones, I find them decorative in many of my tanks so I use them but I do not kid myself into thinking they do anything in the way of adding oxygen to the water. In a very few of my tanks, I run air driven filters and for those tanks the air flow is essential, it keeps the filters working to save my fish from biological origin poisons like ammonia and nitrites.