Can you have too much air in a tank?

[bluebird42]

My aerator has two lines, one is already hooked up to a bubbler. What would happen if I added a air stone to my tank? Would there really be any changes? Is it more or less healthy? I like bubbles.

 

[Colin_T]

It depends on the fish being kept. If it's for a Betta then they do not like too much water movement, but danios, rainbowfish and Galaxias love water movement. You can have lots of aeration (air bubbles) as long as there are some calm areas for the fish to rest in. If the fish are constantly swimming to stay in one spot, there is too much water movement.

 

[bluebird42]

Thank you for the info

 

[AbbeysDad]

There really isn't much circulation/turbulance that would bother fish with an air stone. There are a few interesting points to consider. Now it may seem that air pumps and air stones pump Oxygen into the water with the air. In reality, there is a gas exchange of O2 and CO2 when bubbles break the surface and/or there is surface agitation like the water return from a filter. The gas exchange creates a kindof equilibrium in the water between O2 and CO2. Now many on the plantedtank.net forum discourage air stones as it potentially reduces CO2 in the planted tank and plants need CO2. However, in a low tech tank, the simple equilibrium could in fact increase CO2, while O2 levels remain high.
Another consideration is that bubbles can somewhat reduce the realism in the display tank as if you were to look in any river or lake you would not see streams of bubble coming up. (and don't even get me going on and on about bubbling treasure chests or sunken pirate ships!)
That being said, if you like the bubbles and your fish don't mind, there's no technical reason not to have them.

Footnote: I have a bubble bar at the bottom left side of my 60g tank that runs 24/7. I run an air driven Hamburg/Matten filter in my 10g, a double sponge filter in my 5g, and a no clog air stone in my 37g. Let the bubbles flow!

Tank on,
-Mike