Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Tanks and Equipment => Topic started by: Mirage on September 10, 2014, 08:53:59 PM
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Hi, I'm in the process of setting up my tank and as a total newbie would like opinions as to whether the filter on my tank is aerating my tank sufficiently or do I need an air stone and external pump.
I have done a quick YouTube vid
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Thoughts please...
Thankyou
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its a bit hard to tell - i normal gauge mine from a surface view ,it seems to be creating some ripples on the surface of the water so it probably isnt far off you want it so that it is drawing water up and over the surface so it gives chance to get fresh oxygen in it .iam sure someone can explain it a bit better than me
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I'll post a video tonight after work to show the surface view, I can adjust the output angle on the filter to cause more/less disturbance if needed
Thanks
Phil
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The way to adjust the filter outlet is as Chris says, so that it causes ripples on the surface.
Gas exchange occurs where the water meets the air; that is, at the surface. Oxygen goes in and carbon dioxide goes out (unless you have a lot of live plants which use a lot of the carbon dioxide). If the water was completely still, gasses would have to diffuse through the water to and from the surface and this would limit the amount of fish you could keep. But if the water circulates round the tank it carries the gasses to the surface and down to the bottom of the tank so the gasses move in or out of the water much quicker.
The easiest way to circulate the water is to have the filter outflow moving across the tank just under the surface. This pushes the water that was on the surface to the bottom, and pulls up the bottom water to the top. Air stones, deep sea divers etc work by the bubbles churning up the water and mixing the top and bottom. Very little gas exchange happens from the surface of the bubbles themselves. Air stones etc are mainly aesthetic.
You could test your filter outflow by putting something harmless in the tank and and watch what happens to it - a bit of polystryene, a feather, something that won't add anything nasty to the water and is big enough to catch and remove.
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Here is link to vid showing surface movement
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That seems fine to me looks like you have enough surface agitation, but bear in mind the fast flow of your tank as some fish like angels prefer a slower flow.
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I think it looks ok, but bear in mind that the agitation of the water surface may increase/decease as the water level changes (e.g. when it evaporates or you add fresh) dependant on how your filter outlet is situated. It looks from your vid that the water level was quite high so the surface movement is likely to increase slightly as the water level drops between changes (although I've found that my Juwel doesn't tend to lose much water to evaporation).
By the way, your rubber duck looks a bit poorly - you might want to get it seen to :D