Air stone in the south

[runninwoof]

hi! i have a 10g tank with 3 mollies, 3 danios, and 3 neon tetras, and 1 sailfin pleco. i live in atlanta georgia which means its usually about 80 degrees at night and pretty warm during the day, and on top of that i live on the top apartment over and old lady that loves to keep her heat on. so, with air conditioning on its usually about 80-82 degrees in my home and my 2 10 gallon tanks. i somtimes see my mollies coming to the surface for wat looks like a gulp of air. i read that they may do that becuz there isnt enough o2 in the water. i have a large sword plant and have the water level a little lower to increase splashing from the filter, but they still seem thirsty for air.

my question is, would an airstone be helpful or just a waste in a 10g tank.
and if helpful can you recomend 1.

 

[Sombunya]

Info I found was, air stones do not increase O2 in the water much. Surface agitation does. Sounds like you are doing it all correctly.

Also, I'm not real familiar with the fish you have but you may be a bit heavily stocked, for a 10 gallon tank. If that's the case, get more filtration, move more water.

I've also heard that a small fan blowing over the water will increase evaporation and help cool it down. As the O2 enters the water through the surface agitation maybe one of those small computer fans going 24/7, blowing over the water surface, along with the small waterfall you created might help.

Not expert advice, just my opinion.

 

[harmy4993]

the airstone will create Surface agitation which will create more oxygen. so yes an air stone would help

 

[neilanh]

Several points.

At Higher water temperatures the water cannot hold as much oxygen, so it is more feasible that you could have a low O2 situation. How much turbulance is being created by the lower water level? An added airstone could possibly help, but at some point you max out basically on benefit and it becomes overkill. The whisper quiet pumps aren't bad, and any old airstone will work.

As Som said, you are pretty heavily stocked for a 10g tank. Do you monitor your water parameters? how old is your tank? If you're seeing elevated ammonia or nitrIte levels, this could also cause the symptoms you're seeing in your fish.

 

[runninwoof]

water paramiters are
ph - 6.2
nitrate - 40 ppm
ammonia -0
nitrite- 0

by the way the fish are zebra danios, black mollies

 

[Alaris]

You need to do a 50% water change. Try to keep the nitrAtes below 20ppm.

I have heard suggested many times about blowing a small fan across the top of the tank to increase evaporation, like Som suggested.

 

[Purrbox]

That Sailfin Pleco is going to get way to big for your little 10 gallon. Make sure you have plans to rehome it soon.

As others have mentioned to get the temp down, your best bet is probably going to be setting up a fan to blow over the water surface. This will increase evaporation, so you'll need to top it off more frequently.