Too much oxygen?

[ger87410]

How much oxygen should you have in the tank? Should every inch of the tank be covered in bubbles? Would anything bad happen if that does happen?

 

[tstenback]

You cant have too much oxygen in the aquarium as water will only hold so much oxygen - H20. The only place that oxygen gets added to the tank is at the surface and the only way to get more oxygen into your tank is to create turbulence at the surface. The air created by air curtains etc does not add any oxygen to the tank(or very little) but does create water movement and surface agitation that will allow for more oxygen to be absorbed.
Interesting question. did you ask out of curiosity or is there another reason?

 

[ger87410]

Just about every inch of my fish tank is covered in tiny air bubbles. I just didn't want to hurt the fish.

 

[tstenback]

Is this a new tank or have you done a major water change lately?

 

[Nina7777]

No amount of oxygen is too much.

Bubbles everywhere is perfectly normal and a good sign that you have enough surface movement. It wont hurt your fish in any way. Quit the opposite actually.

 

[luxum]

You can't have too much oxygen, (well actually, you could, don't go injecting pure O2 or anything crazy like that, too much oxygen is a poison, but you are not going to encounter that in a fishtank) but you can have too much surface disruption if you have a planted tank. Surface agitation adds O2 to the water, and releases CO2. So bubblers are great for fishtanks, but not so good for planted tanks because the plants need CO2 and surface agitation drives it off. Bubblers can also be stressful to fish that prefer water to be more still, like anabatoids. If you use a biowheel bubblers don't really do anything for your O2 since the water is well oxygenated by the bio wheel. This is why biowheels are also not the best choice for a planted tank although they are excellent for fish only tanks.

 

[Bol]

Just about every inch of my fish tank is covered in tiny air bubbles.

What exactly do you mean by that, ger?

Do you mean the glass has bubbles clinging to it? The decorations, plants, filter tube, etc?

Or do you mean there are bubbles on the surface of the water?

 

[ger87410]

I mean that throughout the inside of the tank just about, because of the water fall effect and air sheets that I have, there's air bubbles every square inch just about. I've had this tank for about a month or 2. Also everything has bubbles clinging to it. The way that I got the airsheet set up in onw of my 55 gal, it creates a tiny vortex at the surface, going full throttle. It's really quite cool.

 

[CFC]

Actually there can be too much oxygen in a tank and it can result in a condition called gas bubble disease. If the water becomes over saturated with oxygen then the fishes blood also becomes over saturated but since water and blood can only hold specific ammounts of disolved gasses the excess oxygen has to escape and takes the easiest route, in the fishes case through the skin causing hundreds of tiny blisters.
When the water is over saturated you will see hundreds of tiny bubbles clinging to the surfaces within the tank but the problem is only usually seen in planted tanks with CO2 injection intense lighting and no surface movement. Basicly the plants become too efficient at producing oxygen and the lack of surface movement prevents it from escaping, the cure is to run a airstone in the tank for a few minutes each hour to allow the surface gas exchanges to take place.

 

[ger87410]

I've got surface agitation up the yin-yang. The tank doesn't have plants, yet and don't have co2 injector. I've always seen thousands of tiny air bubbles floating on the surface. I've had it like that for over a month. Are my fish in danger?

 

[tstenback]

I dont believe you are in any danger. If you want to check things out, just shut of the air curtain and the bubbles should go away in a day or so. They do not pose a problem unless something is wrong with your water parameters such as high ammonia. As i said i dont think you have anything to worry about as long as the fish appear active, eat properly and maintain their color. HTH