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  • oxygen

    how do you guys keep your tanks well oxygenated?  i like lookin at pics of tanks and i very rarely see anyone using airstones.  i tried not usin airstone and my fish were suffocating.  what do yall do to keep it natural lookin enviroment  and still get plenty of oxygen for the fish??

  • #2
    Re: oxygen

    O2 gets into the aquarium thru surface agitation, mixing, and or aeroation. Plants also would help in this.

    To keep my O2 levels up, I use high gph filters, and powerheads.

    I do not know what your waterchange schedule is like, but other things you might consider are more frequent waterchanges.

    What size of tank are you talking about and what filtration do you have?

    For most moderately stocked aquariums, 5X turnover rate is the general rule for filtration.  So, in a 20 gallon aquarium, you would need a filter with atleast 100 gph flowrate.

    If you have larger cichlids or heavy stocked aquarium, then more like 7-10X turnover is needed.

    Hope this helps...

    Geoff
    380G For Sale $3000 Acrylic tank & stand
    300G Petrochromis Trewavasae and Tropheus mpimbwe Red Cheek & Duboisi
    180G For Sale $1,100 Oceanic Cherry with Stand, T5HO Lights, (2) Eheim 2262
    150G Tropheus Annectens Kekese & Ikola

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    • #3
      Re: oxygen

      i have a 110 gallon with a xp4 on it.  like 450 gph.  i have a powerhead that moves like 300 gph.  When i set the tank up i noticed my fish were not movin much, not hungry, and werernt themselves.  i added the airstone and bam they came back to life within less than hour.  i have the spray bar across the top, it makes the tank ripple good but when i turn the air off the fish get lazy after a day and the powerhead doesnt blow onthe surface cause of the noise but it creates a current though on the surface.

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      • #4
        Re: oxygen

        When was your last waterchange and how much?
        380G For Sale $3000 Acrylic tank & stand
        300G Petrochromis Trewavasae and Tropheus mpimbwe Red Cheek & Duboisi
        180G For Sale $1,100 Oceanic Cherry with Stand, T5HO Lights, (2) Eheim 2262
        150G Tropheus Annectens Kekese & Ikola

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: oxygen

          when i took the airstone off and all that the tank was setup for like not evan a month.  i change water about 15% ever month but i dont take off my airstone anymore.  i just wanted toknow how everone else does it with out airstone.  i dont like the look of the airstone but i cant seem to get rid of it

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          • #6
            Re: oxygen

            I think your tank is not cycled yet which is why the added surface agitation by a little airstone is helping so much.

            I also personally think that one xp4 isn't enough for that size tank but that's just me.
            700g Mini-Monster tank

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            • #7
              Re: oxygen

              how can it not be cycled yet though i have had it setup since march.  How should the spray bar be postitioned to aggitate enough??  the way the pipe is i cant put it on top of the water, plus the noise is way to much when i do that.

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              • #8
                Re: oxygen

                In my opinion, 15% water changes per month is inadequate. Your fish are most likely not doing well without an airstone because the tank is either overcrowded, not yet cycled, or the nitrate/waste/etc. levels are high. (This can also contribute to stress, which can contribute to all kinds of problems/diseases.) So no matter how large your filter is, or how many gph it moves, the nitrates, if high, will only get worse. That's where water changes come in.
                "Millennium hand and shrimp!"

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                • #9
                  Re: oxygen

                  I do 30-40% weekly.
                  700g Mini-Monster tank

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                  • #10
                    Re: oxygen

                    You can have the spray bar under the water, just have it so the spray is slightly upward so that you see a good amount of watermovement.

                    I would also have the Powerhead just below the watersurface.  If the powerhead is equipped with a Air Venturi you could use that instead of the airsone.

                    What I think, may be your worst problem though is the need to change your water in the range of 30-50% a month.  I am not sure how many, how big, or what kind of fish you have, but if they are large you need to change more water.

                    Another thing to look at, if you do not want to change water, is how much are you feeding?  If you are feeding twice a day, you should consider only once a day or every other day even.

                    I think your XP4 at 450 gph, and a powerhead at 300gph is enough filtration for a stocked 110 gallon tank.  I am going to take a guess and say this tank is most likely a 5ft tank.  If this is the case it should be enough, unless you have the tank stocked with large fish or overstocked, or overfed fish.

                    From what you have stated so far, I would do a good 50% waterchange per month, take out your foam pads in the bottom trays of the XP4 and rinse them out and re-use, and replace the fine pad every 2 months in the top tray. The Bio-Media in the middle trays, only rinse them in used aquarium water or fresh dechlorinated water.
                    380G For Sale $3000 Acrylic tank & stand
                    300G Petrochromis Trewavasae and Tropheus mpimbwe Red Cheek & Duboisi
                    180G For Sale $1,100 Oceanic Cherry with Stand, T5HO Lights, (2) Eheim 2262
                    150G Tropheus Annectens Kekese & Ikola

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: oxygen

                      I do weekly water changes of approx. 10%, and have one 250 gph powerhead w/venturi, and one Eheim 2217 on each tank.
                      I have my Eheim return lines placed horizontally, facing the surface about 5 inches from the top of the tank.
                      My fish are so active, I've considered looking for some kind of fish-riddlin for them.  


                      CF
                      Truth is the cement that holds the bricks and stones of a sane and civilized society together. Remove the former and the latter will crumble.

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                      • #12
                        Re: oxygen

                        mrairportjunke, I will not call myself an expert in this subject, but I too setup my tank in March of this year.   Until 3 weeks ago, I was unsure how my tank was going in its cycle phase.  I went to xtreme fish and Pets http://www.xtremefishpets.com/ and they recommended a product called Kent Marine Organic Adsorbsion Resin which is a little expensive ($15.00/ 8oz jar, and with a 125 gal tank you will need two Jar's as a min).  I added these into bags and settled them over running water inside my filtration system.  This in matter of days cleared the tank of all ugly particles, ie the look of dust disappeared, but more important all traces of ammonia, and NO3 went away.  The water became crystal clear and my fish became much happier... they no longer tried to scrape against objects in the aquarium (which I understand now is because there was to much ammonia in the tank) and they became much happier..  I replaced every week 15-20gallon of water, I have a 60gal tank, until I added the resin, and now I am doing a 20-25 gal every two weeks.  I do run two wooden air stones in my tank but this is because I want to ensure that there is a ton of o2 in the tank.  
                        I agree with many of the other people here..  you need to exchange more water out than what you currently are doing.

                        What fish do Jesper have
                        180 WC T. Moorii Chilambo +1 Petro trewavasae.
                        110
                        Cyps, WC Xeno Spilopterus Kipili WC/F1/F2 T. sp red Kiku
                        58 S. Decorus

                        "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money." -Margaret Thatcher

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                        • #13
                          Re: oxygen

                          well im pretty sure my tank fully cycled a few weeks back.  it was dusty lookin for longest time and then few weeks ago it just bam cleared up over night.  i checked my levels and all seem to be fine.  i dont really think my tank is overstocked either cause I had all of them in a 55 gallon and they all did fine with out an airstone.  I dont feed alot I feed little bits at a time and when its gone maybe a little more but they dont get too much.  no food goes to the bottom or in the filter.  they eat it all.  i do feed like that 2 times a day.

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