Too Little Surface Movement

[dkarmona]

My fish gills are moving really fast, I thought it was because of excess co2, but today I was going to lower it and discovered It was shut down, I measured co2 and It is around 9 ppm. Since I recently got a canister filter and the return of water goes to a rainbar that is located on the bottom of the aquarium, the surface movement is very little.

Could my fish be sofocating from a lack of oxigen, surface movement increases the co2 loss, but do we need certain amount of surface movement to maintain a fish load.
So i increase the surface movement, but then i have to increase the bubble rate of co2 to maintain 20-30 ppm because more co2 will be lost, there must be a point of equilibrium, were i have enough movement so the fish have more 02 from surface movement plus the 02 produced by the plants and the increased bubble rate maintains an adecuate level of co2.
Does it make sense?

 

[dkarmona]

Re: Too Little Surface Movement

Well I found out on my own, I increased the water movement using a power filter during the light period, increased the bubble rate and my co2 is at 35 ppm at the end of the light period and fish are not gasping at the surface and seem happier, and the reactor is off at night.

 

[Liz]

Re: Too Little Surface Movement

Well I found out on my own, I increased the water movement using a power filter during the light period, increased the bubble rate and my co2 is at 35 ppm at the end of the light period and fish are not gasping at the surface and seem happier, and the reactor is off at night.

If I recall correctly you are having fish die and your plants are growing well, correct? I had multiple fish die without a mark or sign of disease, and the reason was low oxygen levels overnight. One morning I found every fish at the top of the tank by the canister return. They returned to normal behavior within 20 minutes of the lights coming on and me putting an airstone in the tank to stir thing up. I now run a bubble bar with a rena 50 and no, I have never run CO2 at night.

I haven't noticed a change in CO2 levels or had any difficulty maintaining CO2 levels with the bubble bar in place. Fish are much happier and active in the morning. Mysterious fish death has stopped. Plants keep growing. I'm debating replacing the bubble bar with a mini water pump.

 

[dkarmona]

Re: Too Little Surface Movement

Yes, today my fish are definitely better, turning the co2 off at night is helping and the surface movement during the day keeps things allright, I don't leave it during the night because the whisper power filter makes a lot of noise, but maybe I will consider having a powerhead near the surface of the water to strirr things at night.

Maybe we need a lot of surface movement to really lower our levels of co2 so our little solutions just help fish.

 

[Tom Barr]

Re: Too Little Surface Movement

Many people go way too far trying to worry about surface movement.

We certainly do not need aeration at night though...........I think folks simply need to add a little water movement to their surface and this will not occur(gasping fish) .

I've never had gasping fish unless the surface was not moving.

O2 levels should be very high and be 80-90 % before the lights come on in a well run tank.

The surface movement should help.

The problem lies in folks using inefficient methods and not using their CO2 equipment properly.

Not a need for night time aeration.............

Adding turbulance to the surface will blow off a little CO2, not much really unless very excessive.......

It's easier to add a tad more CO2 during the day than setting up a night time aeration system IMO.

If you have not figured out how to add enough CO2, many will reduce the O2 in the process causing the gasping fish........don't do that!!

Regards,
Tom Barr