# Air stones and CO2 injection



## lakerat37 (Aug 4, 2005)

I made a previous post today concerning CSM+B and a possible causation to the death of 3 of my best Koi Angels. I am wondering if the lack of an airstone in my tank due to CO2 injection may be starving my fish of oxygen? I have glass tops on my tank and there is very little open air space for the water to absorb oxygen. I do not have any way to test for oxygen absorbtion, so I am trying to look at every possibility.

Thank you in advanced. Lakerat37


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## Salt (Apr 5, 2005)

I often cause controversy by saying it, but I personally believe that any aquarium that is covered should run an airstone 24/7, planted or not.

In my glass covered 42 hex, I have a heavy fish stock, so it's absolutely necessary. I once tried turning the air off for a day. I got to about three hours until several of my fish died and I got a nitrite spike. (Note that this doesn't apply to everyone because hex tanks have the least surface area of most all tanks.)

Incidentally, I calculated my CO2 loss to be about 3 ppm with airstones running... not a lot and it can be easily compensated by increasing CO2 rate. This is with a Tetratec DW96-2 pump (pretty much the strongest consumer model air pump available) driving two airstones.


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

I've never ran an airstone with C02 injection, even with DIY was on 24/7. I just made sure that my PH did not drop below 6.5 (lights off) and KH stayed at 3 or better.

Some people do prefer to run an airstone at night if they are running the C02 24/7. Or you can just unhook it at night (DIY) or use a solenoid (pressurized).


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## oztankgirl (Nov 10, 2005)

Well I am following this conversation, because I am getting back on track with my dream of planted tank... (see my blog in intros if you have an hour, lol!) and have ph issues....

I am working on getting my ph down. My stable ph is 7.5 (Sydney town water is 8.1) I don't have co2 injection yet (dh is working on a DIY) so that will, I am lead to believe, lower it for me without using buffers.. so eventually I will be down around 6.8 ish.

But in the meantime I use Seachems Acid & Alk buffers to get it down (love them as they contain no phosphates). MY KH is about 6d, and 9dGH.

I wanted more water circulation, so dh got an airstone today. After he had it running for 6 hours, I checked the ph when I got home from work and it had gone up to 8.2! Far out I nearly died! I guess all the water disturbance did something major...

Can anyone explain this to me? I am slowly but surely understanding all the chemisty. Sorry for being so dumb! Ignorant but tryng to see the light s/b my motto ; - )

Thanks in advance guys, I'm off to bed for an early morning start at work, yes working on Sunday, retail sucks but someone has to do it!

Look forward to reading replies when I get home.

Kerry 
<_><|


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