melonie said:
But the main question was: will forcing air from an air pump up the intake of a canister cause the filter to stop functioning?
Assuming that the canister filter has its pump located at the top of the canister, and is operating in a 'suction' mode, then yes, injecting air up the pump intake hose is probably going to lead to pump cavitation and/or airlocking (i.e. loss of 'prime'). As to doing any actual physical harm to the pump or filter, probably not.
One method of getting additional
O2 is the addition of a bubble wand. While most folks think of them only as decorative, they do supply surface agitation
true, I run a bubble wand for this reason, and they also effectively increase the air to water contact area of a given size tank by adding the net surface area of all of the air bubbles to the tank's top surface area.
Caudelfin, my own easy answer is to run two 'smaller' filters -- one of the canister/modular style for the best mechanical and chemical filtration, and another
HOB style filter with a bio-wheel so that the bacteria 'conversion' reaction has access to all of the atmospheric
O22 it needs.
Thanks,
Yes I had an idea that this would cause pump cavitation, but the canister that I am looking at, the FilStar XP3 states that air bubbles present no problem to it. However, I do not think I will force the issue. Sure it is understood that most aquariums have plenty of
O2. But if you are as heavily overstocked as my aquarium sometimes gets, it is indeed possible to have the fish at the top gasping for
O2 just before daylight when the plant oxygen intake is at its greatest. As soon as the daylight starts streaming through the window the plants start producing
O2 again and when you turn on the
vho flourescents then everything goes back to normal. Bubbles are not a good idea if you do have a planted tank because they will drive the
CO2 out of the tank, just when the plants require it the most. If you have no plants then it does not matter and they do add
O2 to the tank. A good aquarium will measure
o2 between 5 and 7 milligrams according to Barron's Aquarium Plant Manual, Ines Scheurmann is the author. A fish manual states the same figures and also says more than this will cause the
O2 to leave the aquarium as a gas. So if you are measuring
O2 then shoot for between 5 and 7 milligrams of
O2.
90
gal tank
Down at the moment.
29
gal
Emperor 400
HOT Magnum ( I know you abbreviate
HOB but since the proper name is H.O. T. and I do not necessarily hang it on the back, but perhaps side especially when I use it on the 90
gal, on the side and to clean a tank briefly I may hang it on the front.
7 Wag Tail Platys 4 are almost 2 inches long the others over an inch.
7 Zebras (Danios)
4 Danios that are probably morphs of the Zebra, they have a very small body with a large fantail and have the Zebra stripes. These maybe still very young and may grow larger.
2 100 watt heaters both set on 75 deg. F. Just in case one goes out.
And I must move over to the Pond forum as I have a pond and an overload of plants and gold fish, some fancy.