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Twinstar..what is it?

Tanks looking good Steveno, I really like your scape.

I was in The Green Machine on Saturday and what did I see? A twinstar being tested in one of their tanks. I don't want to put words in anyone's mouths but they seemed fairly positive so far.

It's something I'd definately be interested in but it does look a bit unsightly if you've got nowhere to hide it in your tank.
 
Quick things to add based on our "almost a month" test 🙂
  • The device raise the pH level a bit. We usually have 6.5 in our tanks, but where Twinstar is running is 6.9-7. This is an upper limit for some bee shrimps but i not recognized any issue. Maybe the increased oxygen level has more weight than the slightly lower pH. Anyway with CO2 and Aqua Soil Africana we read the above pH. Still this is the optimal pH so i am not worried.
  • Aquarium glass need to be cleaned weekly approx. But easy to clean. Strange as from decors and plants the algae is dying off, but the glass has a little hair/greendot
  • Seiryu takes a bit longer to clean up. This is happening but had much quicker effect on Dragon stones (dragon is still super clear from any dot etc). Also since Seiryu hardening the water i see those Ca+ stuffs on the diffusor plate. I guess the diffusor need to be cleaned in every few weeks to perform the best. We never cleaned since we started. Will do after the test.
Our 4 weeks test will come to an end this week. Will post an image on the tank later this week.
 
Hi all,
viktorlantos said:
but where Twinstar is running is 6.9-7. This is an upper limit for some bee shrimps but i not recognized any issue. Maybe the increased oxygen level has more weight
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Sounds like it is an oxygen effect, it is the O- in OH- that makes it a base.

cheers Darrel
 
Hi all,
Martin in China said:
Would a pressured diving bottle and a diffuser have a similar effect?
Click to expand...
Assuming you mean the change in pH? it would. In soft water with plants you get a large diurnal change in pH, depending upon the CO2/O2 ratio. When plants are photosynthesising the level of O2 rises, raising pH, and when they stop and become net oxygen consumers (and CO2 producers) pH falls as a small proportion of CO2 goes into solution as H2CO3 (HCO3- and H+, and acids are defined as H+ donors).

In heavily carbonated buffered water (high dKH), you don't get anything like the same rise and fall in pH, as the water is full of bases all ready (so has a pH of ~pH7.8) and the large amount of HC03- ions means that the bicarbonate ~ CO2 equilibrium needs you to add a lot of CO2 (really the H+ from H2CO3) for the pH to fall.

We get a reduction in pH when we add CO2 (and we can use 4dKH indicator to estimate CO2 levels) because of the CO2~HCO3 equilibrium, if we add oxygen it will have the effect of depressing the fall in pH, because we are adding oxygen (O2), and it is an H+ acceptor (H+ and O-H = H2O).

cheers Darrel
 
Martin in China said:
I actually ment...would a higher O2 level (more acidic) also be able to stop algae growth...could it be that a healthy growing plantlife generates more O2 thus less algae....could it be so simple?
Click to expand...

This would help with the filter bacteria and with this the water quality in general. Water will be clearer, some algae which exist because of your lower filter efficiency will disappear probably.
But still Twinstar helps with green dot and some other algea which would not disappear so quickly just by adding oxygen. Also plant growth is not visible that much with oxygen addition.
That is probably the cause of the super small bubbles in a specific volume.
 
Hi all
Martin in China said:
would a higher O2 level (more acidic)
Click to expand...
No other way around, more oxygenated water is more alkaline (higher pH).
viktorlantos said:
That is probably the cause of the super small bubbles in a specific volume.
Click to expand...
Like Viktor suggests if there is an algal suppression effect it is likely to be caused by the nano-bubbles of oxygen, rather than the oxygen in the water, even if it is at 100% DO saturation (or even super-saturated in bright light with sufficient nutrients). It tends to be a self limiting system in some ways, as very high rates of photosynthesis rapidly deplete CO2 levels. As a general rule high levels of oxygen mean low levels of CO2, unless we are actively adding CO2.

Curiously it is easiest to get oxygen super-saturation in quite polluted water (where bacterial activity is creating CO2), but only in bright light (details are here under "facultative ponds"<3. Wastewater treatment>).
Even under satisfactory operating conditions, the dissolved oxygen concentration (DO) in a facultative pond will vary diurnally as well as over the depth. Maximum DO will occur at the surface of the pond and will usually reach supersaturation in tropical regions at the time of maximum radiation intensity, as shown in Figure 9. From that time until sunrise, DO will decline and may well disappear completely for a short period. For a typical facultative pond depth, Df, of 1.5m the water column will be predominantly aerobic at the time of peak radiation and predominantly anaerobic at sunrise. As illustrated in Figure 9, the pH of the pond contents will also vary diurnally as algae utilize CO2 throughout daylight hours and respire, along with bacteria and other organisms, releasing CO2 during the night.
Click to expand...
Figure 9.
t0551e0o.gif

In terms of the saturation of water with oxygen bubbles from photosynthesis it could be from any photosynthetic plant, including the green algae, it doesn't have to be higher plants. As an example a lot of atmospheric oxygen comes from photosynthesising marine Diatoms.

I'd have to check, but that should probably be "any photosynthetic organism including cyanobacteria", as I'm pretty sure that cyanobacteria will "pearl" as well in certain circumstances.

cheers Darrel
 
Hi Darrell

How do you think the O2 is produced? By separating the O from the H2O using electrolysis?

Cyano does pearl too. I've had it myself (insert puking noise here).
 
George Farmer said:
Hi Darrell

How do you think the O2 is produced? By separating the O from the H2O using electrolysis?

Cyano does pearl too. I've had it myself (insert puking noise here).
Click to expand...
If we could just harvest that H from this proces, we can run our cars with that waste product from our fish tanks...🙂)
 
TOO said:
The hype is building 🙂. As i understand it, it does not have any effect on bba? This is my only enemy at the moment. So will wait to hear more on everyone's experiences in that regard.

Thomas
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It wont kill it for sure. Might prevent it but cannot confirm that. It does not say it will kill it either though.
 
TOO said:
The hype is building 🙂. As i understand it, it does not have any effect on bba? This is my only enemy at the moment. So will wait to hear more on everyone's experiences in that regard.

Thomas
Click to expand...

It not touched BBA in my tank, i had a little growing on my Echinodorus tennellus, however since trimming effected leaves i've not noticed it has returning.
 
dw1305 said:
Hi all, Yes I do, based upon the patent information posted on page 9.
Have a look at this paper for some figures, they achieved about 300% super-saturation of O2: <PLOS ONE: Oxygen and Air Nanobubble Water Solution Promote the Growth of Plants, Fishes, and Mice>, although it is a paper that I would have a lot of reservations about.

cheers Darrel
Click to expand...

Nanobubbles are really awesome. I've seen some amazing achievements with it, like keeping an orchid alive for months submersed.
 
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