Confused.

[-Rob-]

in my juwel roekord 80, im looking to have about 6 plants, i am going to use the standerd internal filter.

now i keep reading that if you have a planted setup you do not need a air pump installed ?

but i keep seeing tanks with them anyway?

am i going to need to use the air pump i have? its a twin outlet one and i was just going to attach each with a air-stone to some of the decor.

thanks for anyhelp

 

[K-Holed]

It's entirely up to you. the only time you would NEED an air pump, is if you relied on it for filteration (ie. an undergravel filteration system). Many people have them purely because they like the bubbles and they do provide a certain amount of surface agitation, to aid the exchange of gasses.

 

[waterdrop]

Agree. I assume your juwel uses built in water pump (also called the powerhead of the filter) to operate, so there's no need for you to have an air pump. People imagine that bubbles increase water to air surface area enough to make a difference, but they don't. Disturbance of the water surface (which, indeed, bubbles do, but not usually as much as other methods) is the significant factor in gaseous exchange between water and air.

So bubbles are mostly all about looks.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

I use lots of air pumps Rob. I like the way the bubbles look in some of my tanks. In other tanks I have air operated filters, usually sponge filters, so an air pump is needed there. Many of my tanks run without air stones or an air pump, usually because I don't want the noise of one in that location. Even the most silent of air pumps is audible in a quiet room, unlike most of my filters. I do run an air pump on tanks with plants in them unless I am using CO2 for my plants in that tank. I can't see wasting CO2 by adding it and then driving it out by running an air stone or high water surface circulation rates. The high surface circulation allows a good air exchange which can accelerate the loss of CO2 from CO2 saturated water.