The Puffer Forum

Since I have my tank planted with live plants I never had airstones in my tank. I had heard they can rob the plants of co2 and what not. The other day Bloat was acting funny, he was layin around all day and breathing a bit harder then normal. On the advice of kENNY I tossed in an airstone to see if that would perk him up. Well ever since I did that Bloat has been more active then ever. He is swimming around his tank more then he ever did, always exploring. It has been about a week now and I have to say even if it kills all my plants, every tank I have will have an air stone in it from now on.

Thanks kENNY, Bloat is a even cooler then before now

good on you!

glad to hear that Bloat likes his new toy

Also I had forgotten JT was in on it too

Yes he does

i have always kept air stones to make sure there is enough oxygen in the water. i have never really kept a planted tank so i dont know the ill effects it has on them. but there are also people who have said that filters/powerheads create enough turbulance to provide oxygen in the water. so i tried my tank without an airstone for a few days but put it back in because i noticed a film developing on the surface like the air exchange wasnt happening even though i pointed part of my spray bar directly to the surface. i never noticed my GSP breathing heavier(thats mostly what i was looking for) but only put it back in because of the break in the surface of the water

Whether you need extra oxygen in the water, depends on what fish species you keep. Most fish don't need any extra, and putting the filter outlet in the surface is sufficient. But there's a lot of catfishes that likes extra oxygen in the water. I wouldn't keep South American catfishes without any extra supply of oxygen. Myself I prefer diffusors on the filter's outlet. I use that in all my catfish tanks, both suckermouth and cory cats.

I have to come down on the side of the anti-airstone crowd. I very strongly disagree with the presumption that the only or even the most desirable solution to low oxygen levels in tanks is the airstone. To me the proper solution to inadequate O2 levels is by current control, as Troender stated. That does assume properly sized and filtered tanks of course.

Currently all of my tanks are more or less planted and I do not supplement CO2, so off-gassing of CO2 is not an issue fore me. The two issues for me are noise and mineral spray from the airstones. This does not mean that I have no air-driven filters - I actually have a lot of them - but only that the design does not generate either noise or excessive spray.

Airstones may be one of several possible solutions, but are, IMHO & IME. not the best - for me at least.

HTH

i am close to being to the anti-airstone that is why i tried not using it, but i put it back in for my puffer cause i was worried that the film at the top would cause suffocation eventually. i had a section of my spraybar pointing directly to the surface of the water, and the spraybar was already only 3 inches below the surface so there was plenty of movement up there. i guess just not enough of a break in the water. im sure if i played with it long enough i would be able to get it though to where there was no film. once i do a sump thats where the airstone will be. i really like the calm look the tank has without one. but if you do certain types of decor, having an airstone to make one or two animated isnt too bad if you ask me cause it can be aesthetically pleasing and benefit the fish.

I've never found them to help, unless something is wrong. While figuring out what is wrong they can keep fish alive, and I see no reason not to use them in that case.
When working in a pet store, however, I saw that they are more often used to keep tanks with inadequate flow or inadequate turnover going past where they would otherwise fail, and are often a feature of very overstocked tanks.

inadequate flow could be a problem in my 55, all it has is a marineland 220. But when he moves to his big tank the pump will have 1300gph turn over and its about a 110g tank

That should work well, just make sure the water turns over well - intakes at the bottom of one corner while output goes at the top of the opposite corner is a good way to make sure all the water gets turned over. I've seen canister filtered and sump-run tanks with overflows and intakes both at the top of the water get very poor turnover even with high flow, unless powerheads are run to turnover the water as well.

I have temporarily used airstones to help with tank temp/decreasing oxygen and when using medicines such as melafix. So, I think they are important to own..

However, can I be on the pro-airstone train because of he cute decor you can use with them? Come on...a treasure chest when the lid pops open and bubbles come out...too cute. Ok, I will admit I am a bit tacky...

ya tacky came to mind as soon as i started reading your comment lol

so we are now describing the film that appears on the surface of the water from feeding high protein foods?

The surface biofilm is from inadequate turnover and/or possibly inappropriate filtration. I have had one tank in the circulating range which developed a visible surface film routinely when the system was first established, even though the entire system had similar of identical fish in all of the tanks - that is not a diet issue, it is and was a water handling or water management issue. I learned a lot about current management in "curing" that tank.

And I still will not use airstones. But I admit that I suggest their temporary use to some folks on the forums until they can correct their water handling issues.

If I wanted that sort of decor, I would have a junk tank without fish, thanks very much anyway. Fish tanks should be seen and not heard, and do not need extra work effort which is totally unnecessary.

All purely IMHO, YMMV.

yes but well all listen to your opinions very much. I will be trying some more water movement in the tank once i move bloat to his new tank