# Air Pump In Planted Tank?



## Philip.Chan.92 (Apr 25, 2010)

I have 30+ stems (3-10 inch) of Hygrophila Polysperma as well as 7 tiger barbs, and isolated bn pleco fry and cherry shrimp, I put a small tank with mesh top inside the larger tank. I have a HOB filter for some surface agitation. Do I need to use an air pump and airstone in planted my tank?


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

If you are injecting CO2 into your planted tank, using an airpump with an airstone would be counter productive. However, if you are not injecting CO2, there is no harm in using an air pump, but it is not necessary.


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## Philip.Chan.92 (Apr 25, 2010)

thanks a lot, Just gonna turn it on, size there is no harm doing so, keeps the fungus away in my experienced 
The air pump won't rob my plants of the much-needed CO2 will it?


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## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

> I have a HOB filter for some surface agitation.
This is enough.

Sometimes there is a film on a surface, in this case an air pump with more surface agitation will help.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

Philip.Chan.92 said:


> thanks a lot, Just gonna turn it on, size there is no harm doing so, keeps the fungus away in my experienced
> The air pump won't rob my plants of the much-needed CO2 will it?


I don't see how having an air pump will keep fungus away. Be careful that correlation does not always imply causation.

Finally, as long as you are not injecting CO2, having an air pump running will not rob your plants of CO2.


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## Philip.Chan.92 (Apr 25, 2010)

Darkblade48 said:


> I don't see how having an air pump will keep fungus away. Be careful that correlation does not always imply causation.
> 
> Finally, as long as you are not injecting CO2, having an air pump running will not rob your plants of CO2.


I heard that well aerated tank helps keep fungus at bay, maybe misinformation?


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

Philip.Chan.92 said:


> I heard that well aerated tank helps keep fungus at bay, maybe misinformation?


Most likely. You'd be surprised at the amount of misinformation out there.


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

Darkblade48 said:


> Finally, as long as you are not injecting CO2, having an air pump running will not rob your plants of CO2.


Not sure what is meant by rob, but an airstone will gas off any dissolved co2 in the water, whether added via contact with air or produced by the inhabitants in the tank.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

Chris S said:


> Not sure what is meant by rob, but an airstone will gas off any dissolved co2 in the water, whether added via contact with air or produced by the inhabitants in the tank.


If CO2 is not being injected, and the plants are consuming the CO2 in the water column quickly, it is possible that an airstone will actually increase the dissolved CO2 concentration to match that of atmospheric CO2 (while still quite low, it is higher than zero).


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

I find from experience that the plants don't grow well with air pumps running in them.

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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

Darkblade48 said:


> If CO2 is not being injected, and the plants are consuming the CO2 in the water column quickly, it is possible that an airstone will actually increase the dissolved CO2 concentration to match that of atmospheric CO2 (while still quite low, it is higher than zero).


Exactly. The level of carbon dioxide in the water is the same as in the air; it tries to maintain an equilibrium. it stands to reason that if the plants are using it up, drawing more from the air would be beneficial.


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## Darkside (Sep 14, 2009)

I inject DIY CO2 and I also run a very small air-stone. Without the air-stone the fish are gasping at the surface within the hour. I should probably find a better way of dissolving the CO2 into my setup, but its been working well for me so far... except for the canopy which I have to clean every few days as a result of the water marks deposited by the air bubbles.


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## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

Darkside said:


> I inject DIY CO2 and I also run a very small air-stone. Without the air-stone the fish are gasping at the surface within the hour. I should probably find a better way of dissolving the CO2 into my setup, but its been working well for me so far... except for the canopy which I have to clean every few days as a result of the water marks deposited by the air bubbles.


It's interesting. You might have almost no current in that tank.

Do you have a filter in that tank and what type of it?
What is a distance between water and the canopy?


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## Darkside (Sep 14, 2009)

igor.kanshyn said:


> It's interesting. You might have almost no current in that tank.
> 
> Do you have a filter in that tank and what type of it?
> What is a distance between water and the canopy?


There is almost no surface current. I inject the CO2 directly into my Aquaclear 50 intake tube. This is on a 35 gallon standard aquarium.


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## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

Darkside said:


> There is almost no surface current. I inject the CO2 directly into my Aquaclear 50 intake tube. This is on a 35 gallon standard aquarium.


Do you cover outflow somehow? Water from your Aquaclear 50 should make some surface moving.


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## Darkside (Sep 14, 2009)

igor.kanshyn said:


> Do you cover outflow somehow? Water from your Aquaclear 50 should make some surface moving.


The surface is minimally disturbed. I think this is a result of the rather steep angle of the water coming from the overflow in conjunction with the 12" width of the aquarium. The water heads down on a sharp angle, hits the front of the glass about 14" down and then proceeds to the return. There is really no surface water movement more than a inch away from the water entry. I used to have a penguin mini on this aquarium and it produced significantly more surface agitation, but the aquaclear just leaves all my fish gasping at the surface. I think I need to add a small powerhead to help better balance my CO2.


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

BillD said:


> Exactly. The level of carbon dioxide in the water is the same as in the air; it tries to maintain an equilibrium. it stands to reason that if the plants are using it up, drawing more from the air would be beneficial.


The level of co2 in the atmosphere is negligable when compared to what the barbs and plecos in the tank would produce for the plants to use. The air stone gases that off, while the atmosphere only contains approx. .039% cO2.

I wouldn`t say it is beneficial in that sense.


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