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Can i turn my airstones off with this much sirface agitation ?

C

candymancan

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Joined
8 Nov 2014
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I have 3 fish tanks in my bedroom (yes im fish tank crazy as I have 8 tanks total) One in a 27g hex the other a 44g Pentagon and my 10g bowfront. Im trying to get the pump noise down so I can sleep better.. I have already replaced all the HOB filters with Internal Top fin filters awhile back.. That drasticly reduced noise.. I can barely even hear these pumps like to the point where I have to turn my ceiling fan off and really listen lol, HOB Filters were just too noisy and expensive.

Now, I have 2 air pumps they are a top fin 10 or 20 I forgot. These are the quietest air pumps I have ever found personally and I have used them for a long time. But replacing my HOB filters they are now the next noisiest thing in my tanks and im tired of hearing the bubbles at night and the hummm of the pump.

The Top fin Internal Filters have a spray bar where the water exits from you can turn them 360 degrees up or down or left and right, and these things have flow adjustment too.. So I already eliminated the need for power heads with this filter too.. So I turned the powerhead in my 27g hex off. Now what I did was turn the spray bar up at an angle so it pushes the water like HOB filter would across the surface and creates what I think a lot of surface agitation.. I just don't want my fish to die..

Do you guys think this is enough so I can turn the airpumps off ? The Hexagon has 21 fish in it all small fish though like neon tetra's and the only big fish are 3 electric blue rams. The tank temp is at 82f. The pentagon has 26 fish in it, but it also has discus in it. The tank temps are 88f. I turned the pentagons airstone off last night when I slept and this morning no one was gasping for air or at the top of the tank. So I guess its good then right ?


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It is generally not necessary to run fish tanks with an air stone, if you have even the slightest surface movement that will be enough gas exchange to keep the tank happy. Most of the planted tank people here don't use airstones and inject CO2 and fish are all happy. I ran my 180l tank for years with no airstone.

Where an airstone is useful, planted or not, is it can breakup any surface film that accumulates (especially in immature planted tanks) and also create differing water circulation patterns, lifting settled detritus back into the water column to be filtered away. Also useful if you overdo your CO2 and start gassing your fish, a minute or two with airstone lowers CO2 sufficiently for fish to recover.
 
While I agree for the most part I had taken off my spray bar on my internal filter in my 27g tank so all it did was push water like a power head and it was near the surface but all it did was agitate a corner of the hex.. I turned my airstone off and and the next morning I had all my fish at the top and 3 of em died.. But this time like in the pic the spray bar is attached and its agitating the whole surface.

Problem with the hex and Pentagon is they are very Deep/tall tank.. Pentagon being 30 inches long 25-26 inches deep and 25 inches tall, and the hex being 25 inches tall and 18 inches deep.. There isn't much surface for the exchange like a long short narrow tank. So they need more agitation then a normal tank
 
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