planted tank with airstones

[skiltrip]

I read in another post something about having airstones in a tank with live plants being a bad thing. I have a 37 Gallon tank, and just bought my first live plant. a really big swordplant (amazon i think). will the airbubbles harm the plant in some indirect way? (i have 3 regular airstones)

- kip

 

[afFISHionado]

Well, I know that many people (myself included) that keep planted tanks use CO2 injection in tandem with intense lighting to augment plant growth. In this case, airstones would be undesirable since they would drive off much of the dissolved CO2.

 

[talenzmeier]

Airstones

The key to answering the question, IMHO, is knowing whether or not your fish are getting adequate oxygen. If they can get adequate oxygen without the airstone, then by all means turn it off. However, if they become stressed and they look like they're suffocating, then use it. One other bit of advice. If you want to run the airstone, run it at night and turn it off during the day. This method will enable you to more or less synchronize the airstone with the krebs cycle.

 

[skiltrip]

what exactly is the krebs cycle? I'm new at all this plant stuff.

- kip

 

[tkos]

Without the use of CO2 the tank will just form an equilibrium with the outside air as far as CO2 goes. With airstones it will just reach that equilibrium faster. So unless you are using CO2 feel free to use the airstones if you like them.

 

[talenzmeier]

Krebs Cycle

The Krebs cycle was named after Hans Adolf Krebs. He won a Nobel Prize for his discovery of the tricarboxylic acid cycle whereby plants convert oxygen to carbon dioxide.

By turning off the airstone(s) during the day you will help the plants because more CO2 will be allowed to build up in the tank than would normally be the case with them on. At night when the plants are not engaged in photosynthesis, the greater presence of oxygen will not impede the growth of the plants.

I run both (CO2 infuser & powerhead) and I'm sure I'm sacrificing some plant growth because of the powerheads I have running.