Properly Aerating Your Aquarium

[No78]

As below I copy from a Web .

Just to share , maybe someone have posted before .

But now due to hot weather everyone keeping they fishes should remind and take note .

Fish can be found in a variety of environments all over the world -- live in oceans, lakes, ponds, and rivers. These bodies of water all have large surface areas and often strong current which keep the water moving. Water movement and circulation serves to oxygenate the water so that fish have the air they need to breathe and survive. However, in an aquarium, the surface of the water is greatly reduced. Therefore, artificial ways of oxygenating the water must be accomplished through aeration. There are several ways to aerate your aquarium and these methods will be discussed in this article.

Before discussing specific methods, it is important to address the surface area of the water in your aquarium. The greater this surface area is, the more water that is in contact with the air at any given moment. This leads to greater oxygen absorption by the water. Therefore, you should try to maximize the surface area in your aquarium. This issue is particularly important to consider when you are thinking about the shape of a tank – standard tanks are rectangular with a greater width than height but some tanks come in “tall” sizes with walls that are taller than they are wide. Many people mistakenly assume that you can keep the same number of fish in a 20-gallon standard tank as you can in a 20-gallon tall tank. However, the 20-gallon standard tank actually has a larger surface area due to its length and width dimensions. You need to be careful with tall tanks or irregularly-shaped tanks (such as hexagons), as the water surface can be fairly small. This smaller surface limits the stocking capacity of the aquarium.

Oxygen/Carbon Dioxide Exchange Basics

As your fish breathe, they absorb oxygen from the tank water and their bodies convert it into carbon dioxide which is then exhaled. Oxygen and carbon dioxide are also exchanged at the water’s surface -- carbon dioxide is released from the water into the air. This is important because your fish would die if the CO2*was never allowed to escape into the atmosphere – it would simply build up in the tank, causing your fish to slowly suffocate.

While CO2*is being released from the water into the air, oxygen is also being absorbed from the air into the water. This is important because it increased the oxygen content of your tank water, providing the oxygen your fish need to breathe. For this gas exchange to occur, however, the surface tension of the water must be broken – this allows for carbon dioxide molecules to be released and oxygen to be absorbed. Agitating the surface breaks this surface tension and allows for a proper exchange of gases.***

Temperature and Oxygen Concentration

As the temperature of your aquarium increases, the oxygen content in it decreases because the evaporation rate of your tank water will be higher. Therefore, the higher you keep your tank’s temperature, the more aware you need to be of whether or not your fish are getting enough oxygen. Once you get above 800*F, you will probably have to provide some of the aeration devices listed below in addition to your filter.

Thank you .

[streetsmart73]

Bro, thank you.

Very good article & materials

[insouciant]

800F? your tank already boil until no more water!

[DragonFireSG]

It's a bit more correct to say that as temperature of a liquid increases, its ability to keep gases in solution decreases. It isn't anything to do with rate of evaporation.

This is the reason why making ice with hot or boiled water gives you a crystal clear result - no air bubbles will form as there is little to no dissolved air in the water

[satan_gal]

i read somewhere there's a link between dissolved O2 and flowrate?

By right... shd b faster flowrate = higher dissolved O2?

[patclay]

Thanks for the info. Quite a good read.

[wintan]

Thanks for the Great information!