Hi guys! :D

I've been doing a lot of reading and I am wondering if my current aeration methods in my 29 are excessive.

To keep it brief and basic:

-29 gallon tall
-Bio-wheel 200 gallons per hour
-no live plants
-11 tetra
-7 cory cats
-very thin layer of gravel substrate
-Decor- stuff from the Forrest Castle series (probably have no idea what I'm talking about- various rock formations, fake plants, and castles pretty natural looking)
-0 Ammonia
-0 nitrite
-about 10 or 20ppm nitrates
-ph 8.1
-temperature 79 F
-Flourescent lighting with splash guard
-I guess that covers the bare basics

Anyway, the question:
I have been running probably way too much aeration.

Don't laugh:
A dual outlet pump with 2 airstones designed for a 40 gallon tank
A dual outlet pump with 2 airstones designed for a 30 gallon tank

My tank has been like this for as long as I can remember. I was looking at my tank- and thinking about how excessive all the bubbles are. For some reason, I always thought they were necessary. Now I'm not so sure.

Sorry guys, I know this is kinda weird.

I feel like an idiot that I have never really thought about this before.

What would you guys do about aeration in this situation?

If you've gotten this far, you've read my novel and might as well reply :D

Thanks! :up:

Aeration is one of those funny things where you can never have too much of it, because the O₂ and CO₂ levels in the tank, can only equalize with the rest of the surrounding air. With no fish/plants, you don't need anymore aeration than what's being provided naturally at the surface of the water. Increasing the amount of aeration only increases the speed at which those levels will equalize. This can make a difference if you overstock like I do (I now have 40+ 1 inch feeder fish in a 10g tank, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 1-3 nitrates, and all fish are happy and healthy), aeration isn't going to make a difference.

:star: Some people think that plants provide all of the CO₂ to O₂ that a highly overstocked tank needs, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Plants only exchange CO₂ for O₂ durring daylight while they are producing food, but turn out the lights, and they consume the food they have stored, and actually convert O₂ for CO₂, which means that while durring the day when the light is on, you need less aeration to equalize the levels of O₂ and CO₂ with the surrounding air, at night, you need even more than you would without plants. :star:

:?: Ok, that's all well and good and fine, and it's great information, but it has nothing to do with your situation. In your case, you have an understocked tank with no plants, and massive aeration. You would be just fine with nothing other than the bio-wheel (and even that's not necessary for aeration in this case, even though it provides it by increasing the surface area of the water, the same way those bubbles do, because inside each of those bubbles, is surface area). So, if you want to cut back on your electric bill, unplug one or both of your air pumps... just put in as much aeration as what pleases you astetically, because in this case, even one air stone is over-kill. Fortuneately, it's pretty difficult to do any harm with over-aeration. :up:

Thanks for the reply!

My only concern is the whole water circulating thing. I think that I will definitely disconnect at least one pump.

The main reason I want to cut back on aeration is because I almost have "waves" on the surface of my tank

I always kind of thought my tank was maxed out on stocking. Do you think I could add maybe some more tetra or cories?

Exact details on fish: 5 rummy nose tetra, 6 neon tetra, 2 peppered corries, 2 spotted cories, and 3 panda cories.

Maybe I could turn off the 2 pumps I have running right now, and hook up one of the pumps I have that is designed for a 10 gallon just to provide some surface aggitation.

Opinions?

Yes, well you will need water circulation, but you'd be getting that from the bio-wheel filter. :up:

Now you may be talking to the wrong person here, because I'm the king of overstocking... but you should be able to add 2 of each of the tetras, and 1 of each of the corys without having to change your setup at all... although, you did say you're running between 10 and 20 nitrates, right? So that would mean more frequent water changes... or a change in filtration.

My severely packed 10g feeder fish tank has 1 canister filter completely packed with ordinary polyester batting for bio filtration, 2 freshwater clams, some Anacharis, and 1 dual air pump powering the canister and air stone... and 40+ fish... oh, that's not even mentioning the ghost shrimp... I'm not sure exactly how many there are, since they have been breeding like MAD, but I'd estimate their numbers are from 10-20. I do 25% water changes every other week. For lighting on the anacharis I am pumping a full 8 watts per gallon in on two compact florescent bulbs. I keep the pH high (between 8.0 and 8.5) because I can't keep it stable with that many fish, and because the anacharis is likely using the carbonate hardness of the water in leiu of CO₂ with that much wattage... and I can continually replace the carbonate hardness if I run a high pH by using just a few pinches of aragonite sand substrate.

:up: Now to me, that actually looks good... lot's of interest and activity and whatnot, I can stare at that tank for HOURS on end. :down: But for many, it's just too much. So I guess you'd have to decide how many is too many for you... then plan accordingly.

i think it is fine however you just have to decided what you think would look better

Your panda cories live in 8.1 water? Hmm... I might have to give them a try. I'm worried my senegal bichir will find them and have a snack, though. Maybe if they grow up together.... :lol:

I had a 10" air stone in my 29 gallon and it almost created a foam on top of the water it produced so many bubbles. To this day I still don't know why it was doing that. I thought it may be from the decorations I put into the tank leeching some chemical, but it still does it, so who knows.

Know what kind of pumps you are running?

As of the moment, I'm trying: 2 airstones from the 40 gallon pump running near the biowheel and 1 airstone from a 10 gallon pump running on the other side of the tank near the surface.

When I said nitrates 10-20ppm, that is my max. It is usally 5-10ppm

Oh, I forgot to mention, 1 male fantail guppy is in there who used to live in the 10 gallon (long story)

Mazza, if you plan to keep pandas in higher ph, such as mine, just make sure you acclimate them gradually and ask your lfs what ph they keep theirs at. I have never had any problem with pandas, very hardy little catfish. They are active and like to eat a lot. So, make sure they have plenty of sinking foods. They like little groups. I keep 3, I may try to get some more. They can be kind of hard to find.

Anyway, what do you guys think of my current air pump arrangements. I'm thinking about running another airstone for just a few hours a day.

My male guppy likes to just hang out near the bio-wheel in the current. Do any of you guys have guppies that do that? He also parades around the middle to upper section of the tank with all his fins raised up and such. I thought he might be unhappy without his females, but he seems to think he's king of the tank. Do you think it would be crazy if I put another male guppy in there with him?

Thanks, guys! :up:

If you add another male guppy, you may want to keep an eye on them. They can get nippy without females sometimes!

I wouldn't put too many more fish in there, with the guppy you have 19 right? Just go by the 1 inch of fish/ gallon rule and you should be fine. Maybe a few more tetras (2-3) and maybe another cory. I think that would be plenty for a 29 gallon. Sounds like you have a great setup though!

I also have problems w/ airstones w/ too many bubbles! :lol: Never have been able to figure out why they'd do that though. I eventually took them all out, it was just too much current for the boys!

I have moved the male fantail back to the 10 gallon.

I had originally moved him over with intentions of separating him from the females so that I wouldn't have any more fry to deal with. Now that I am planning to give my guppies to one of my lfs, they can breed all they want in the meantime.

I am trying to find a time to take them in because they are the only lfs in my area that will take fish and I am a theater student and have play rehearsals every weeknight, therefore I would then have to go home, get the fish packed and ready for travel, then drive to the fishstore, and they would be closed. :down:

I really want to keep this male because I have raised him and guppies don't live for years and years and I don't want him to die unhappy.

The females are all pretty young.

I am wondering if I could put 2-3 other males with him and would they be okay? I have read of many people doing this, but I'm kinda nervous.

I am also getting ready to seed another smaller tank that will be for a betta.

I am not planning to add anything else to the 29.

Any ideas about the male guppy group?

Thanks! :D

I added a aquaclear 201/20 on my ten and you can hook-up the an air hose to it if you need to. I also have 50's in my 55's just in case i need some extra circulation.

So you just have your pumps on stand-by and then hook them up if you need circulation? I may have misunderstood.

Thanks! :D

I turn them on when I feed because I want the uneaten food to get filtered. I also have them hooked up to a timer for twice a day action.

Oh, that's a really good idea to only run them sometimes. I think that my fish have become so accustomed to all the bubbles that they are uncomfortable without them. A few days ago I tried turning the pumps on one side off for a while, but none of the tetra would come to that end of the tank or eat off the still surface.

My fish love the current the powerheads make. I also attach the quick filters every once in a while to keep the water polished.