TASHANCRAIG
Aquarium Advice Regular
is it possible to have to much oxygen in my aquarium i have live plants and a airstone can it ever be overloaded with oxygen that could harm my fish ???
to much oxygen ????
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jsoong
Aquarium Advice Addict
Short answer is no.
You can't really get into toxic O2 levels without pressurizing the air above your tank. Otherwise, excess O2 will simply come out of solution & the gas bubbles floats to the top of the water & out. <This is call pearling in a planted tank ... and if you don't see that, your plants are not making enough O2 to even saturate the water to its maximum capacity, and you need to be many times over the saturation point to cause problems in fish or plants. And without pressurizing the system, you cannot get much O2 oversaturation. Certain algae will be killed at "normal" O2 saturation levels .. but you are not planning to grow algae now?
>
You can't really get into toxic O2 levels without pressurizing the air above your tank. Otherwise, excess O2 will simply come out of solution & the gas bubbles floats to the top of the water & out. <This is call pearling in a planted tank ... and if you don't see that, your plants are not making enough O2 to even saturate the water to its maximum capacity, and you need to be many times over the saturation point to cause problems in fish or plants. And without pressurizing the system, you cannot get much O2 oversaturation. Certain algae will be killed at "normal" O2 saturation levels .. but you are not planning to grow algae now?
>
As far as I know - unless you're diffusing pure oxygen from a tank into your aquarium, there's no way to cause a harmful overdose of oxygen.
Oxygen and CO2 exchange themselves on the surface of your water, so if there's extra oxygen in the tank, it will likely diffuse out of the water.
The problems occur when there's not enough agitation of the water to allow the CO2 to leave the water, and then fish can suffer from CO2 poisoning, but if you're running an airstone, that shouldn't be a problem.
Just remember - the bubbles that the airstone make don't directly affect the O2 in the tank - but it's more the fact that - when they break the surface of the water, that breaking motion allows O2 and CO2 to exchange.
Oxygen and CO2 exchange themselves on the surface of your water, so if there's extra oxygen in the tank, it will likely diffuse out of the water.
The problems occur when there's not enough agitation of the water to allow the CO2 to leave the water, and then fish can suffer from CO2 poisoning, but if you're running an airstone, that shouldn't be a problem.
Just remember - the bubbles that the airstone make don't directly affect the O2 in the tank - but it's more the fact that - when they break the surface of the water, that breaking motion allows O2 and CO2 to exchange.
Deep Seven
Aquarium Advice Addict
Simple answer, no.
Water will hold disolved oxygen (DO). How much depends on water temperature, water quality (disolved solids like salt and such). The warmer the water the less DO it will hold, and colder water will hold more.
Now if there is extra oxygen in the water, it will just release into the atmosphere. If someone knows better please correct me, but fish are happy with as much disolved oxygen they can get.
As a side note, on the fish farm we monitor DO levels religously. If the amount of oxygen gets too low, below 5ppm, we stop feeding the fish; a fish digesting lunch consumes more oxygen then a fish going hungry.
Water will hold disolved oxygen (DO). How much depends on water temperature, water quality (disolved solids like salt and such). The warmer the water the less DO it will hold, and colder water will hold more.
Now if there is extra oxygen in the water, it will just release into the atmosphere. If someone knows better please correct me, but fish are happy with as much disolved oxygen they can get.
As a side note, on the fish farm we monitor DO levels religously. If the amount of oxygen gets too low, below 5ppm, we stop feeding the fish; a fish digesting lunch consumes more oxygen then a fish going hungry.
