Air Pump in a reef tank.

[blaxsun]

I have often wondered about doing this. One huge benefit is if power goes out if you are using one of the battery powered pumps you wouldn’t have to worry as much. In the event of a bacterial bloom it would be hugely beneficial as well. I have wondered what the o2 content is in my tank but the probe to show it is rather costly.

I don’t think this would be sufficient for any kind of extended outage. But I have a pair of gyres on battery backup for this contingency,

 

[NowGlazeIT]

I think it’s great for the fish but bad for salt creep. If you don’t mind replacing the salt as needed or cleaning the surfaces that the salt builds on, I say go for it.

 

[Vyper]

I don’t think this would be sufficient for any kind of extended outage. But I have a pair of gyres on battery backup for this contingency,

I have a pair of mp40s with a battery on each. They slow way down on battery and have wondered if slow movement of water is enough.

 

[blaxsun]

I have a pair of mp40s with a battery on each. They slow way down on battery and have wondered if slow movement of water is enough.

BRS did a video that detailed what they experienced during a 2-3 day power outage at their office/facility, and they apparently didn’t lose a single fish or coral on any tank that had an EcoTech battery backup+MPx configuration.

 

[Pistondog]

good or bad?

is there anything to be mindful of?

any species that could be effected?

so on and so forth.

Small 10 g aio, no skimmer or phead. Air stone for gas exchange.

 

[Malcontent]

one way i know is the lack of hobbyists experiencing issues from lack of available oxygen. we don't address problems that aren't pressing.

As a paramedic, how often do you just use your intuition when recording vitals instead of actually measuring? How well would that work? Are your guesses accurate enough?

It's not apparent from fish behavior dissolved oxygen levels are borderline unhealthy. I went years thinking my wet/dry filter was sufficient only to find dissolved oxygen was dipping below 4 mg/L at some points in the day.

Depending on the species, you may not notice something's wrong until dissolved oxygen levels are approaching acutely lethal levels (< 2 mg/L).

for context, as a trained paramedic i am aware that atmospherically we require less than 20% oxygen to normally function. If a healthy person was inclined they could easily wear a nasal canula all day and night to boost their O2 but to what benefit?

Well, there are a few studies where fish were found to grow fastest at levels exceeding 100% saturation. Since 100+% saturation isn't normally achievable (even with air stones) it could be argued we should strive for the highest practical levels.

In a reef tank running an airstone may well increase atmospheric O2 but running that airstone in the sump essentially is going to form bubbles in the form of skimmate which will get very messy along with the aforementioned salt spray and to what benefit?
as for the example, you're conflating saltwater and freshwater with your wastewater example. if you want to run a little test its actually very easy to see what'll happen.
assuming you have a skimmer take the cup off and place the lid from it over top of the skimmer neck. what this does is allows the bubbles to overflow without being collected. if you leave it overnight the mess in your sump may make you reconsider all of this.

I never said reef tanks should have air stones. Only that if you choose not to use them, do so for factual reasons not hobby myths.

I find that really hard to believe, as most oxygenation is through diffusion - and the movement of water from a wavemaker is vastly greater than the microscopic surface area of all those tiny bubbles. There’s a reason that airstones aren’t prevalent in reef tanks - and it’s not just due to the mess.

We've been through this before...

I’m not sure how you can make an analogy between a small saltwater reef tank and a massive freshwater sewage treatment plant? Just because you can do a thing doesn’t necessarily make it a great idea. For the vast majority of us, if given a choice between no mess vs. daily cleaning and scrubbing, any perceived (negligible) benefit is far outweighed by the (very real) practical consideration of additional maintenance.

I never said reef tanks should use air stones, only that they should be rejected for factual reasons and not myths. Besides, the myths were tested at bench and aquarium scale too.

I have often wondered about doing this. One huge benefit is if power goes out if you are using one of the battery powered pumps you wouldn’t have to worry as much. In the event of a bacterial bloom it would be hugely beneficial as well. I have wondered what the o2 content is in my tank but the probe to show it is rather costly.

Emergency use is where air stones shine, spray be danged. They give you seven times more oxygen for the same amount of energy. That might be important when running on battery power.

True, but industrial wastewater aeration basins sustain vastly greater quantities of bacteria—orders of magnitude more—and have rings of air nozzles at the bottom pushing proportionally much greater CFM of air than our measly air pumps.

That being said, I run air stones in my freshwater tanks, but in a reef tank, I don’t think it adds much. If you run a skimmer, you’re already getting the benefit.

Air stones have been tested at bench/aquarium scale. The difference in efficiency actually increased even more in favor of air stones.

The oxygenation ability of skimmers has yet to be tested. I wouldn't make any assumptions one way or another on how well they might perform since humans have a very poor record intuiting anything involving dissolved gases.

 

[uninformed]

The oxygenation ability of skimmers has yet to be tested. I wouldn't make any assumptions one way or another on how well they might perform since humans have a very poor record intuiting anything involving dissolved gases.

At the risk of being argumentative, a skimmer creates far more surface area for mass transfer than an air stone does, with far more aggressive mixing and phase contact. That’s not intuition; that’s visual observation and an understanding of mass transfer drivers.