Air Bubbler Question

[Hamsnacks]

So I have a tank that is pretty much at full capacity for stock, ran into an issue yesterday that seemed like the fish were not getting enough O2 but can't really pinpoint what caused it all a sudden, or if it was ammonia poisoning or something else. I installed an Air pump and it seems like everything is good now.

But I am now fighting Ick in my tank, increased the temp and now adding a bubbler, after the 2 weeks I will continue to use the bubbler when the lights turn off, my only question is, is there any drawbacks to using a large bubbler.

I found a good deal on a 28" air wall, my tank is 6ft long. Would there be any disadvantage of running it through the night every single day? During the day its heavily planted and I inject CO2.

Not worried about noise as its silent but can too much aeration be an issue?

Thanks

 

[AquariumFishRescue]

Do you mean the fish might not be getting enough O2 (Oxygen) as opposed to CO2 (Carbon Dioxide)?

 

[Hamsnacks]

Yes sorry corrected that, thank you

 

[AquariumFishRescue]

We have a 12 inch air stone that produces a curtain of fine bubbles across the back glass. Also we have a rail across the top that forms the output for the filter, so that also produces surface movement of the water. We have never see any evidence of fish going to the surface short of oxygen.

Can you try turning down the CO2 injection and see how things go?

 

[NickAu]

There are no disadvantages to running an air stone.

 

[AquariumFishRescue]

If you do want to use CO2 in your aquarium, avoid running the CO2 system at night, because the fish could then be short on oxygen. Healthy plants do produce some Carbon Dioxide when it’s dark.

https://fishrescue.wordpress.com/2018/12/27/can-adding-too-much-co2-be-bad/

 

[NickAu]

Hi
You say you have Ich in the tank, what temperature is the water? What fish do you have?

Just my opinion.
Co2 injection has no place in a tank with livestock in it.

 

[Hamsnacks]

Initially had no intentions of livestock in the tank just heavily planted, but one fish led to another and now there are about 100 fish in the tank ranging from corys and Tetras to rainbowfish and catfish.

The CO2 was running for 8hrs a day but may look into reducing it or not using it if I find the Livestock are producing enough CO2 now.

Currently the water is going to be raised up to 89F. I fought it in the past and was successful with that number, bit high I know. The ick showed up the day after I had the heavy breathing going on. Don't want to use any meds at the moment especially cause the scaless stock.

 

[Hamsnacks]

The 100 fish is mostly smaller, corys, Tetras, Barbs, Otos...
Only about 12 larger fish in the tank.

 

[pov]

co2 / 02 is a balance . have you thought that if you add 02 to your tank. then your tank will add fresh co2 to the tank to balance it out. So depending on the intensity of what you are adding to your environment you maybe reversing the effect you are trying to achieve . I don't know anything about ich . My guess is chlorines that was my only experience with a tank with ich. For healthy o2 co2 levels follow winters formula.

 

[Colin_T]

For pov, the OP had too much CO2 going into their tank and that caused a few issues. That was dealt with in a past thread.

If you want info of white spot (Ichthyophthirius) you can have a read of the following link. The first post on page 1 and second post on page 2 are worth reading.
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/what-is-ich.7092/

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For Hamsnacks, 89F is too high for Corydoras. 86F is normally sufficient to deal with white spot. If you do increase the temperature, do a big water change and gravel clean the substrate and clean the filter before raising the temp. And increase aeration/ surface turbulence.

Do not add CO2 if you raise the temperature because you will cause the oxygen levels in the water to drop below safe levels and you will probably kill the fish. Wait until after you have finished the white spot treatment before adding CO2 again.

------------
For the original question, there is no drawback to having an airstone bubbling away in a tank. It will reduce CO2 levels while maximising dissolved oxygen in the water. This will benefit the fish. Obviously you will need to turn the aeration off when the CO2 comes on but having aeration at night will keep the oxygen levels high and stop the fish suffocating.

If you have the air pump lower than the tank then there is a chance water will drain from the tank, down the airline and into the pump. Therefore try to have the air pump situated above the aquarium.

Big airstones will put more pressure on the air pump, and the deeper the water (tank height) the more pressure on the air pump. Tall tanks and or big airstones will cause the diaphragms in the pump to break more often. You will know when a diaphragm is split because there won't be much air and the pump will make a heap of noise. Diaphragms can be bought from any pet shop for a couple of dollars and are easy to change.

 

[pov]

For pov, the OP had too much CO2 going into their tank and that caused a few issues. That was dealt with in a past thread.

If you want info of white spot (Ichthyophthirius) you can have a read of the following link. The first post on page 1 and second post on page 2 are worth reading.
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/what-is-ich.7092/

hey colin , my fish do flick themselves against rocks quite often and I have had ich in a tank with these fish, especially in my early days of keeping fish. none of my chiclids caught it but one of the guppies did. should I look at treating the tanks from this behaviour and the fact I have had this problem even if my outbreaks are rare.

my water hasn't been treated although it has a zero ppm and zero nitrates test and zero kh test. the water would have to have say proteins and bacteria or maybe unsafe .


in my tank atm I have a high salt level that will kill any green algae covered rocks that I place in the tank, though it is with in tolerance levels for these fish . in the wild. other then that I cant tell you what the tank parameters are I am not at home.

 

[Byron]

hey colin , my fish do flick themselves against rocks quite often and I have had ich in a tank with these fish, especially in my early days of keeping fish. none of my chiclids caught it but one of the guppies did. should I look at treating the tanks from this behaviour and the fact I have had this problem even if my outbreaks are rare.

my water hasn't been treated although it has a zero ppm and zero nitrates test and zero kh test. the water would have to have say proteins and bacteria or maybe unsafe .

in my tank atm I have a high salt level that will kill any green algae covered rocks that I place in the tank, though it is with in tolerance levels for these fish . in the wild. other then that I cant tell you what the tank parameters are I am not at home.

I know you are asking this of Colin, but there are some concerns here that might need explaining.

Can you describe the fish flicking on rocks and "rare outbreaks"? Are there white spots (ich) or smaller (velvet) or just random flashing (the flicking)? Fish can flash for several different reasons, and adding substances to treat may not be advisable unless there is a specific issue that is serious enough to warrant treatment.

I don't understand the second paragraph at all, sorry, perhaps you could explain this?

Third, the salt level...what fish do you have? No freshwater fish can tolerate salt at even minimal levels on a permanent basis [excepting some livebearers but even for these it is not needed nor advisable]. This may well be the cause of the flashing...salt seriously irritates the gills and the external cells of fish, depending upon the level and species.

 

[pov]

they scrape themselves against rocks, lol. well it,s mainly I notice that is like they are irritated sometimes and they will go up to a rock edge and do a kinda dance against the edge as if trying to remove a loose scale or something and it looks like they are irritated it doesn't happen every day it maybe when the light comes on and tank conditions change but it definatly seems as though they are irritated. they quite of dig around in the sand or swim fast past a rock and scrape it this seems normal.

they white spot the last time was a guppie which had a large white spot it covered a large part of it,s back , between 5 - 10 mm it was kinda velvety not really furry not really solid. all the fish have had the occasional fin rot a white slime but this clears really quickly and years ago I have had tanks with say angels and all the fish died also wild carp and crayfish. this is massive amounts of fin rot and the same large white spots including on the crayfish. I have noticed small white dots on my fish before but I havnt watched it close enough to see that it causes any trouble.

my 2nd paragraph is about the water I use to fill my fish tanks with I get it from a really old maybe more then 50 years old galvanised tin tank and when I tested the water I cannot find anything in it. it is better then ro water that I make from tap water. but this doesn't include bacteria or anything bigger then your normal aquarium tests or hydroponic tests.

as with salt as I have said it is the same sodium and chloride, level as in lake malawai 'I like watching the levels of all of the minerals' which most my fish are in the tank I am talking about except for the guppies which do tolerate brackish water anyway even though they arnt in the tank atm . oh i also have a pleco catfish I forget about it a fair bit and don't know where it comes from.

you have kinda answered my question in one way tho Byron cause you said you probally shouldn't treat tanks unless you are trying to fix a problem. I just don't understand much at all about it.
thought maybe treating the tank once and a while might get rid of potential parasites before they start to manifest into bigger problems.

 

[Byron]

they scrape themselves against rocks, lol. well it,s mainly I notice that is like they are irritated sometimes and they will go up to a rock edge and do a kinda dance against the edge as if trying to remove a loose scale or something and it looks like they are irritated it doesn't happen every day it maybe when the light comes on and tank conditions change but it definatly seems as though they are irritated. they quite of dig around in the sand or swim fast past a rock and scrape it this seems normal.

they white spot the last time was a guppie which had a large white spot it covered a large part of it,s back , between 5 - 10 mm it was kinda velvety not really furry not really solid. all the fish have had the occasional fin rot a white slime but this clears really quickly and years ago I have had tanks with say angels and all the fish died also wild carp and crayfish. this is massive amounts of fin rot and the same large white spots including on the crayfish. I have noticed small white dots on my fish before but I havnt watched it close enough to see that it causes any trouble.

my 2nd paragraph is about the water I use to fill my fish tanks with I get it from a really old maybe more then 50 years old galvanised tin tank and when I tested the water I cannot find anything in it. it is better then ro water that I make from tap water. but this doesn't include bacteria or anything bigger then your normal aquarium tests or hydroponic tests.

as with salt as I have said it is the same sodium and chloride, level as in lake malawai 'I like watching the levels of all of the minerals' which most my fish are in the tank I am talking about except for the guppies which do tolerate brackish water anyway even though they arnt in the tank atm . oh i also have a pleco catfish I forget about it a fair bit and don't know where it comes from.

you have kinda answered my question in one way tho Byron cause you said you probally shouldn't treat tanks unless you are trying to fix a problem. I just don't understand much at all about it.
thought maybe treating the tank once and a while might get rid of potential parasites before they start to manifest into bigger problems.

OK, I am going to be careful in my response here because there is still things I do not fully understand and I will never advise on any form of treatment unless I am close to certain. I would want to observe the fish for several minutes to see just what this rubbing might be, it could be normal.

Everyone here knows I am dead against common salt except as a specific treatment for an issue. So stop using it. There is no sodium chloride in Lake Malawi that I have ever heard of. Mineral salts are the salts of hard minerals like calcium and magnesium and these you need to add unless they occur naturally in your source water which is not the case here. But not sodium chloride, common salt or aquarium salt or marine salt. This will harm these fish, and it is possible this is the source of the irritation.

The pleco is very sensitive to salt. I've no idea about crayfish but these should never be in a tank with any fish.

Treating any aquarium "once in a while to get rid of potential parasites" will only harm the fish even more. If there is definitely a parasite present, do one treatment for that parasite and then major water changes. Never treat any fish tank for "something" unless it is definitely present. Diagnosing disease is not at all easy and adding substances can do more harm than benefit. Fish have immunities, otherwise all wild fish would have died out long ago, but these immunities can bee weakened in an aquarium so easily.