Oxygen Question

[soccerstud652]

I have 3 love plants in my 6 gallon tank. Will they create enough oxygen to replace an airpump? I do not want to deprive the fish I am going to put in of oxygen. Thank for the help.

 

[tbonem91]

assuming you have a filter that hangs over the back and provides surface agitation, that is all you need to provide oxygen for your fish.

 

[An t-iasg]

We all love our plants Do you mean "three lone plants", so you just have 3 plants in your 6 gallon tank?

What kind of plants are they? From your sig line, you're talking about your Eclipse tank, right? From my experience these Eclipse tanks are low-light tanks, based on the light they come with. I did a search on your tank and all I found was "2-inch fluorescent". In a low-light tank, photosynthesis does not occur at a rapid rate, so you probably want to supplement the oxygen that the plants make with a good water flow through the filter. Water movement/agitation will add oxygen to the water.

Are you using the biowheel filter that came with the tank too? The filter flow rate says 75 gallons per hour, so this should be more than adequate to add oxygen to the water. If you are running this filter, I would not use an airpump.

 

[joannde]

Hi - just want to confirm that I understand this as well. I have a HOB filter and will be planting (low lights) soon. After seeing this post, plus the post about fish running out of O2 during the night I want to confirm I got this right:
No need to run airstone with low light plants, even at night

And the next question - does it hurt anything to run the airstone all day long (12 inch bubble wand in a 29 gal, 36 inch) ? I'd hate to have to take my fishes favorite "toy" away LOL

 

[tbonem91]

airstones only hurt if you are injecting CO2 and are running it during the day.

airstones are generally only necessary if you are overstocked with fish or plants, have low surface agitation or are heat treating for ich.

in pretty much all other cases they are purely decrative and provide a toy for the fish

 

[soccerstud652]

RE

Yeh, I have the bio-wheel, but it does not spin for some reason, I do not mind that though because it was way too loud when it spun. Great thank you for the info. As for the plant types , I am not sure of what type they are, but I will attatch a picture for you too see.

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[joannde]

tbo - thanks for clarifying. I'm glad my fish can still have their toy after I plant the tank.

 

[noncentric]

From my experience these Eclipse tanks are low-light tanks, based on the light they come with. I did a search on your tank and all I found was "2-inch fluorescent".

The Eclipse System 6 usually comes with 8 or 9 watts of T-5 lighting. Some plants will grow okay in there. Mine are doing pretty well, especially my ambulia.

Yeh, I have the bio-wheel, but it does not spin for some reason

The bio-wheel will still work as designed if it spins very slowly, but it shouldn't never move. If that's the case, then you might want to clean the two white 'spindles' on the ends of the bio-wheel, and the U-shaped groove that the 'spindles' fit into. The water flowing through the filter should provide enough oxygen, but that assumes that the tank isn't seriously overstocked or overheated.

Good luck!

 

[SkullJug]

wrong plants.

I don't those plants will do very well in your tank, especially with an airstone. They will need much higher light, some C02 and fertililsers. You can already see your amazonicus (On the right)(The one on the right) has leaves tuning yellow. This casued buy either not enough trace elements, or not enough light preventing the trace elements being taken up by the plant. I bought the same tank as this for my daughter (She is six weeks old!) and have stocked it with anubias which will do really well in those conditions.

The filter on these tanks works on an overflow, the water coming out of your filter will supply more than enough oxygen for your fish.

 

[soccerstud652]

re

So how do I provide more CO2? What fertilizers do you reccomend? The dealer at the pet store said that since I was using Onyx as a soil for the plants that I wouldn't need fertilizer.

 

[Purrbox]

Nutrient rich substrates (like Onyx) do not replace the need to fertilize the water column. They do minimize the need to use root tabs. Unless you upgrade your lighting, you probably won't need to worry much about fertilization and CO2. I would suggest taking the time to read (or reread) the stickies at the top of the forum. There's lots of great information on both topics.

 

[soccerstud652]

RE: Brown Leaves

Well, I have kept the light on now for about 12 hours a day, and the plants seem to be fine. IS the standard Eclipse light good, or does anyone suggest a different kind to help the plants thrive? If anyone could give me the name or link to a proper light that would fit in the tank I would have no problem upgrading.

 

[soccerstud652]

Any suggestions?