Can I turn off the air pump at night? Please read.

[HyacinthoAqua]

Hey guys my name is Carlos and I'm new to this forum and to the aquarium hobby as well. Right now I have an outdoor 40 gallon glass aquarium; its housing a 4-inch western-painted turtle, 2-inch three-stripe mud turtle, two koi about 3-4 inches and a 6-inch common plecostomus. For the filter I'm using the Tetra Whisper 40i (up to 40 gallons) internal power-filter and I recently installed the Tetra AP 150 Air Pump (up to 150 gallons) before bringing the second koi and the pleco home.

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Like a mentioned before the tank it's outside, it gets about 5 hours of direct sunlight on the water's surface for my turtles to bask. The side of the glass facing the sun is always covered so the fish have shade. Anyways the temperature during the day fluctuates from 80-84F or so my cheap $5 dollar thermometer says, the water is always cool during the day, never warm. I do have a 250 watt water heater from Aqueon that goes on at night to keep the temp at 76F.




The filter is elevated to create more water movement and oxygen.

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That's the airstone working tirelessly.

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Just some pics.

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From what I understand the higher the tempature, the less oxygen, hence why I bought such a powerful Air Pump in comparison to the tank size. Can I turn off the airpump during the night when the water is cooler, will the growing kois and pleco have enough oxygen with just the filter's waterfall movement? I don't want to keep the air pump running 24 hours a day.

PS: I live in Florida.

 

[Canadiver]

Yes I believe that the waterfall alone would be making enough oxygen for your fish even without the air pump. I have never used an air pump just the filter and weekly water change.


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[friscuba]

I like leaving air on all the time. They create circulation so the co2 can get to the surface and blow off, which is every bit as important as adding o2, and help circulate the water to the filter as well. Any particular reason you'd like to turn it off? If it's so loud it disturbs things I can understand. The pump draws 3.5 watts supposedly, turning it off 10 hours a night would save a total of about 11-14 cents a month in most of the US, other parts of the world may vary.

 

[emrosinbaum]

A great way to test your air quantity is buying a pH test kit. The higher pH tye more oxygen the tank has. Also with freshwater fish, they tend to do well with just waterfall flow.

 

[Jmunroe]

You have other problems in this tank besides air pump on/off. You have the stocking level of a 200 gallon tank and 2 koi that are pond fish and should not really be kept in a tank at all. Turtles are extremely messy and the pleco is as well. The 40 gallon tank is too small for that pleco alone, without any other fish. The koi are cold water fish also and will not do good at those temps. Your fish will/are suffering and will die a slow painful death of kept like this for long. Sorry to be so blunt but I'm just giving you the facts and would rather see you succeed with fish that are meant for a small tank like 40 gallons, than see your fish suffer and you not have a good fish keeping experience.