Does location of air bubbler matter?

[Pittenger5]

I have an overflow in my 130 gallon where I can hide my heater, and output and such. I would like to hide my air bubbler in there, but I'm concerned about my fish getting enough oxygen in the water. My intake is in the main tank, and the output is in the overflow, so the water cycles around pretty well.

 

[Mebbid]

Thats as good a place as any to put it. Most tanks don't need an air bubbler.

 

[ScotJudd]

An air bubbler only does one thing. It moves water. In itself it doesn't increase oxygen levels because the bubbles are in the water too short a length of time for gas exchange. However, the resultant water surface agitation can help with oxygen exchange. I run my bubbler when the lights are out and the plants go into reverse when photosynthesis stops. This helps disperse Co2 particularly as I use Co2 injection during the day and at lights out the Co2 is probably higher than in a low tech tank.


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[Mebbid]

An air bubbler only does one thing. It moves water. In itself it doesn't increase oxygen levels because the bubbles are in the water too short a length of time for gas exchange. However, the resultant water surface agitation can help with oxygen exchange. I run my bubbler when the lights are out and the plants go into reverse when photosynthesis stops. This helps disperse Co2 particularly as I use Co2 injection during the day and at lights out the Co2 is probably higher than in a low tech tank.


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Thats really just a mincing of words. Adding an airstone to a tank increases surface agitation resulting in enhanced oxygen exchange. Regardless of how you want to look at it, an air stone still adds oxygen to the water.

Your stance on it is similar to saying a bullet doesn't kill people but the hemorrhaging of blood is what the real killer is.

 

[ScotJudd]

A bit harsh Mebbid, but I was trying to point out that the air bubbles themselves don't increase oxygen in the tank. I agree, it's the surface agitation. If the bubbler was located in an overflow and not increasing the tank surface movement then it would probably have no significant effect.



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[nightswake]

What about a bubble ladder? That increases oxygen content because the bubble is in the water longer.. so my point is a bubbler increases oxygen content 2 ways by the surface of the bubble in the water and the extra agitation at the surface... as a plumber i know how much issues small microbubbles can cause (look up cavitation).

 

[friscuba]

I'm with Scott on the reason behind a bubbler. I'm not totally following what the OP means by output being in the overflow, but at any rate, I'd think you'd want the bubbler to be in the main tank in an area which sees less flow than other parts. You don't want it blowing into your filter's intake because of the cavitation issues mentioned above. Putting it in an area the filter doesn't directly blow current at would help in the tanks circulation and therefore gas exchange.


I've seen numerous mentions on the board about aquariums not needing airstones, but it's been my undocumented observation over the years that in general, tanks with airstones tend to have healthier looking fish, at least at the retail store level. I've got well over a decade of experience at that level and have seen a lot of shops. I'm a firm believer that every primarily fish tank should have extra circulation. It may be that the stores that take the time to put airstones in each tank also take the time to do a lot of other things right, but when I see stores that have tanks full of inactivie fish that are just basically hovering rather than being fish and exploring their tank, the lack of airstones is something I tend to zoom in on.