air 24/7 ?

[Tener ds]

hi,do u guys leave ur air stone on 24/7?
at the mo mine only comes on at night,should i leave it on all the time?

 

[Lornek8]

Are you running Co2?
If so, running the airstone and Co2 at the same time would be counterproductive. The plants should produce enough O2 when running Co2 to not require an airstone.

 

[Tener ds]

Are you running Co2?
If so, running the airstone and Co2 at the same time would be counterproductive. The plants should produce enough O2 when running Co2 to not require an airstone.

Hi, no more co2 in this tank. Did have it so I had the air stone on only at night.
So I don't use co2 anymore, so just wondering if I should leave the air stone on all the time, or just at night?

 

[Lornek8]

I guess if you've still got the planted tank, the same type of situation may exist. During the day the plants use Co2 and produce O2. If you use an airstone during the day it may drive off whatever C02 is in the water and the plants may suffer.

 

[Tener ds]

I guess if you've still got the planted tank, the same type of situation may exist. During the day the plants use Co2 and produce O2. If you use an airstone during the day it may drive off whatever C02 is in the water and the plants may suffer.

That's a good point, I'll leave it on at night only then. Cheers lornek8.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I agree with Lorne you don't need to run the air pump during the photo-period, because the plants will be supplying much more oxygen than the pump ever can.

I guess if you've still got the planted tank, the same type of situation may exist. During the day the plants use Co2 and produce O2. If you use an airstone during the day it may drive off whatever C02 is in the water and the plants may suffer.

But this isn't necessarily true in all cases, if you aren't adding CO2 having more water movement will actually raise the CO2 levels. When we add CO2, to give us 20 - 30ppm CO2, we have at least x10 the natural CO2 level, and CO2 will escape to the atmosphere more quickly if we have a lot of surface movement. When we have plants actively photosynthesising, and we don't add any CO2, the plants will deplete the CO2 levels until more CO2 diffuses in along its concentration gradient with the atmosphere at the gas exchange surface. If you have a larger gas exchange surface more CO2 will diffuse in.

Unless we are physically adding CO2 to the water, air -stones and trickle filters, will add CO2 to the water when plants are actively photosynthesising (utilising CO2 and producing oxygen), and out-gas CO2 when levels in the water exceed those in the atmosphere (like at night when both livestock and plants are oxygen consumers).

More details are here:
"Aeration and dissolved oxygen in the aquarium": <http://plecoplanet.com/?page_id=829>

cheers Darrel

 

[Tener ds]

Ok, so now I've dumped my co2 should I still do a 50% water change once a week?
I do a 10% water change,Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday and 50% Friday.

 

[bigbird]

i would keep up your changes as you have them planned. If not do at least 50% a week. The better the water, the better the tank and fish . cheers jk :thumbup: