Airstones and CO2

Hi guys,

Been looking for someone who has practical experience with CO2 and air stones.

I have a high tech set up with one of the awesome Fluval CO2 sets (88g), but I've noticed my larger fish gasping in the hot weather (as we all know warmer water = less oxygen). If I add an air stone am I going to get substantial loss of CO2 levels due to gaseous exchange on the surface? Should I just lower the bubbles per second on the CO2, or just run the airstone at night maybe...

Cheers!

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Permalink Reply by Hmoobthor on August 3, 2011 at 11:59am

you can try both.

But I would lower the rate of co2 to help the fish

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Permalink Reply by 2apes2gp667wr on August 3, 2011 at 1:01pm

Just run the airstone while the tank is above normal temperature. Your plants won't die from the minor loss of CO2, but your fish will from lack of O2. We had a heatwave come through the northeast and I just ran the O2 all day for that period. I realize that bubbles bursting at the water's surface increases the gas exchange. I'm yet to see some kind of conclusive information as to the amount of CO2 loss.

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Permalink Reply by Christopher Alner on August 4, 2011 at 6:22am

Oh God yeh of course I'll run it constantly during the hot weather, I've left the CO2 of this week to be sure. I was more interested in the long run, would I lose money on CO2 refills by running a potentially not required air stone?

Should I run an air stone as a precaution when using CO2?

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Permalink Reply by 2apes2gp667wr on August 4, 2011 at 8:22am

Like Benjamin said, I have the air pump on a timer. When the lights go out the O2 comes on and the CO2 stays on all the time because I don't have a solenoid yet.