Surface Agitation?

[seantheprawn]

hi all

my tank has very little surface agitation, like largew areas of it away from the filter remain still and stagnant looking.
is it good to have a lot of surface agitation? like to actually break the surface and get bubbles in the water, or just make the surface ripple?
and yes this has relavence to plants, i have vallis in my tank, and i heard they like a bit of a flow flowing over them, is this true?
so how do u people have your surface? because mine looks a bit to still. and do vallis like a bit of a fast flow?

cheers.

 

[craynerd]

If you are injecting CO2 surface agitation will cause CO2 release from the water to the atmosphere i.e you will lose CO2 from the water which is not what you require. This is why people use the ADA lily pipes as they do an excellent job at this. I imagine a lily pipe will be out of your budget unless you are a keen hobbiest.
Therefore i suggest you just redirect the filter outflow to gently move the surface water as well as the main body of the tank water, just do your best, there is no real method to it.

If you are not injecting Co2 then there is great debate as to whether surface agitation is a good thing, since it actually causes extra Co2 from the atmosphere to dissolve into the water. In my personal opinion from what i have read, it seems this method works well if you are not injecting CO2. In the mean time it is also getting over this "stagnant" surface water problem that you speak about.

Regards the vallis, i will leave someone else to reply since i have had little luck with the plant. I presume it would not "appreciate" excessive water flow distrubance!

good Luck

Chris

 

[craynerd]

Well, that was a conversation stopper!

lol

Chris

 

[seantheprawn]

lol,


well i have no co2 injectior, so agitating the surface doesnt sound like a bad idea. i mean it keeps the surface flowing and it actually adds some co2 into the water.

thanx for the replys anyway chris

 

[Themuleous]

if you have it enough, it also stops the oily film developing on the waters surface