Anyone Use Air Pumps?

[connorsbala]

Does anyone use air pumps in their tanks? I did a pH test the other day and it was 7.4!!!! So i added an airstoen and it went back up to 8 I never see any running in pics...are they bad for marines?
With the pH dropping to 7.4,thats because i didnt have enough surface agitation and CO2 got into the tank...therefore dropping the pH; right? Was this caused by not having enough powerheads etc? Or not enough surface agitation?Its an 18"x12"x15" tank with a hydor koralia 1 and an interpet PF3 internal filter,which is meant for 3 ft tanks. Ill be getting either another koralia 1 or some other powerhead...

 

[Matthew5664]

Usuale you would have enough O2 injection from using a skimmer but you done note one in you set-up. Yes its because of surface agitation that more O2 entered the water and drives of the CO2 upping the pH. the airstone wouldn't hurt. However the wooden ones jused for Marine tank clog over time. You could just use an open ended hard air line. Just a question Q. at what time did you test the pH?

 

[SkiFletch]

Agreed, orienting the powerhead to the surface to create lots of agitation will help a lot.

 

[kkyyllee]

youll get reall bad salt creap

 

[connorsbala]

Ivew got an internal filter in the tank,shoudl i just direct that to the surface then and take out the air stone?

 

[Matthew5664]

Could you place the outlet of the filter about the water level so the incoming water take some O2 in with it. Or depending on the model of internal filter you have bought some have a veturi fitting on the outlet that can be utalized to inject the water with O2

 

[Donya]

Because I have macro in my tanks that spikes the pH durring the day and drop it at night, I have to use air pumps in all of them. Not much air input into any one, but a little has gone a long way to stabilizing my pH. Surface aggitation from the powerhead wasn't enough in my case, and since I have protective sponges around my powerhead intakes, if they get clogged it drops the aggitation, so they havn't really been reliable as a constant aggitator for me. Downside to the airstones is yes - really awful salt creep IF the bubbles are small and pop on the surface. In my 1g, I've had almost no salt creep since I actually removed the airstone and just put the open-ended tube into the tank for big blobby bubbles (I actually use it as my water circulator that way too to since I had to remove the pump due to heat problems).

 

[AK77]

Fortunately with my sump, I get a huge amount of bubbles being generated. The protein skimmer also injects a lot of air bubbles into the water too. I also have my powerhead positioned to agitate the water surface too, although this is probably overkill as the sump bubbles are probably more than enough to help boost the PH.

 

[SkiFletch]

FYI for you AK and everyone else, a properly functioning protein skimmer actually adds little O2 to the water through the microbubbles themselves. Reason being is that the microbubbles it does create tend to trap dissolved organics around their edge and physically block O2 from diffusing into the water. however the fact that most skimmers churn up the surface of the water near the outlet does aid in O2 diffusion

 

[connorsbala]

Could you place the outlet of the filter about the water level so the incoming water take some O2 in with it. Or depending on the model of internal filter you have bought some have a veturi fitting on the outlet that can be utalized to inject the water with O2

Good idea Did this last night,sloadsa bubbles and surface agitation happening Testing water tongiht..gettign CUC tomorrow