More Oxygen Less Disturbance

[triteepleb]

I've looked everywhere for an answer. Maybe I'm just not asking the right questions, but I want to know if it would be a good idea to buy a ceramic disc like the ones used in CO2 setups and hook it up to my air pump to create fine oxygen bubbles that absorb more readily into my water without all the disturbance caused by something like the air stone I currently use. I'm trying to reduce surface agitation to optimize the absorption of my CO2 injection.
 
I understand airstones are for breaking surface tention, creating water movement, and adding some oxygen.
 
My LFS has wooden blocks and airstones, (silica based?) you know the white or blue types. I've read about membrane and other styles of oxygenation parts but nobody ever seems to use the readily available ceramic discs used in CO2 injection for this purpose or at least never mentions it. Perhaps I can get an attachment for my powerhead for the purpose but these ceramic discs seem like a cheaper alternative.
 
Thoughts?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Well you are ignoring a few pertinent facts here. Air stones produce the result of facilitating gas exchange by causing surface agitation. No matter how fine the bubbles are in most tanks there impart little oxygen directly into the water. The reason is the bubbles are not in the water long enough because tanks are not deep enough for this to happen.So airstones can help oxygenate the water, but not how you are thinking. But there is the 12nd part. Airstones, because they agitate, help to out gas excess co2 before the plants might get it.
 
Next, when plants take in co2 they put out oxygen. So the act of adding co2 to a planted tank has the effect of increasing the oxygen. It is only during dark hours that plants use the O not the co2. For this an airstone is fine, but it needs to be on a timer. The other alternative is a pH controller which turns the co2 on or off based on the pH of the water.
 
Two last observations. First, if your water is low in oxygen, your fish should be at the surface a lot looking for air to the point that you would notice it. Second, some small amount of surface agitation will is not necessarily bad. It depends on the plants and the bubble rate. More important that worrying about having enough O, I would worry about having the co2 being injected being dissolved in the water where the plants can use it before it can escape via the surface. This is normally an issue ofco2  bubble size and diffusion.

 

[triteepleb]

Sounds like oxygen does not absorb as efficiently into water since the same small bubble principle does not work at the depths of aquariums. Something I'll have to read more on.

I was concerned with oxygen levels when I first began injecting co2 and observed my fish closely. They seem normal, no change in behaviours or gasping near the surface at all. Therefore I assume my oxygen levels are sufficient. It's hard to say in the middle of the night if they are getting enough. I keep my airstone on a low level of flow all day right now since I don't have a timer. I noticed my plants are pearling nicely as well.

There is a fluval co2 indicator on the tank that reports levels are in the green zone (around 3bps). I'll have to pick up a timer for the airstone.

Thanks for the reply.