Is there such a thing as too much Oxygen?

[hampmp]

Just wondering. I found an extra air stone and pump and thought about throwing it in the sump just to let the tank inhabitants breath a little easier :bigsmile:.

 

[tyler1503]

Well, you don't wana open the lid to your tank and have it go "pssshhhhhhh" like a coke bottle lol.
I don't think there's any issues with too much oxygen, but air stones can clog up easily and create ridiculous amounts of salt creep. I wouldn't add it.

 

[mcarroll]

+1

Salt creep.

Naked airstones in saltwater are what caused the invention of the protein skimmer. Naked airstones in saltwater cause nastiness as well as salt creep...protein skimmers just appropriately contain it and (mostly) prevent the salt creep.

You'd be better off aerating your RODI container if you really feel the itch to use those air stones.

Personally, I'd get a battery powered air pump and save them for use when the power goes out! (Temporary enough the mess won't have enough time to accumulate.)

-Matt

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I agree that salt creep and salt spray is the concern.

Tanks never get too much O2 from aeration alone, but if you tried to add O2 to the water (such as from a tank), that could cause a problem.

One way to gauge the gas exchange in your tank is by the daily pH swing. The more aeration, the smaller the swing is likely to be (given the same number of photosynthesizing organisms).

 

[H2O]

I hooked up a 2 little fishy reactor to my skimmer air intake I put special dry pellets in it that take out co2 out of the air plus what ever dust that's in the air that still don't change the o2 level by much .. I also noticed when the tank has anykind of brown or red cayno bacteria the levels stay low and won't jump up for nothing until the nasty slimy stuff is out of the system

 

[feh]

This could be a potential concern... oversaturation of gases in the water can cause gas bubble disease.

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/species/disease/pdfs/fishdiseases/gas_bubble_disease.pdf

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I hooked up a 2 little fishy reactor to my skimmer air intake I put special dry pellets in it that take out co2 out of the air plus what ever dust that's in the air that still don't change the o2 level by much .. I also noticed when the tank has anykind of brown or red cayno bacteria the levels stay low and won't jump up for nothing until the nasty slimy stuff is out of the system

\

Such a CO2 scrubber is a good way to reduce CO2 and thereby raise pH, but as you suggest, it does nothing for O2.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

This could be a potential concern... oversaturation of gases in the water can cause gas bubble disease.

With the process the OP proposed using an airstone, this couldn't happen, but it might if you used pressurized O2 from a cylinder.

 

[dss190]

I was thinking of using the CO2 adsorption media from TLF, as my pH gets in the high 7.7's at night. Does it work good? I'm going to start dosing kalk in my ato, but I'm not sure if that is going to be enough to keep the pH up or not. The tank is in my room and I've noticed that when I don't sleep in my room the pH tends to stay higher as all the CO2 that I would be exhaling is not in the room.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

People have mixed results with scrubbers. Some get a big pH rise, and some get less than 0.1 pH unit. It depends on how effective the scrubber is at removing CO2 from the skimmer air, and how much other aeration the tank gets with high CO2 air, such as at the tank top.

 

[leptang]

With doors and windows shut and breathing co2 out every breath in a closed room may cause lack of oxygen. But on the other hand one could have lots of house plants to aid of biological oxygen depletion in day light hours as plants use carbon dioxide and make oxygen. You could run a refugium with lots of algae with lights on at night under your stand to help add in ph and low oxygen problems at night.

 

[feh]

With the process the OP proposed using an airstone, this couldn't happen, but it might if you used pressurized O2 from a cylinder.

True, it can happen. Not sure you would need to bottle to do it though.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

True, it can happen. Not sure you would need to bottle to do it though.

I agree. Any pressurized air or O2 that drives gases well above saturation could be a concern.

 

[dss190]

Would running fans across the top of the tank help at all with CO2? I know it will evaporate my water faster.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Would running fans across the top of the tank help at all with CO2? I know it will evaporate my water faster.

Not if the home air itself has excess CO2 in it (which they often do).

One of the tests I suggest in an article on low pH is aerating a cup of tank water for a bit inside and outside and monitoring the change in pH in each. That tells you if the excess CO2 is in just the tank (the pH rises with both; more aeration alone will help with indoor or outdoor air) or in the home air (the pH rises a lot more outside; more aeration alone will not help if you use indoor air).

 

[dss190]

Great, thank you. Funny that you say that, I actually read that article the other day.

 

[beaslbob]

I think it is much more critical especially on our tanks to remove the co2 then to have any worry at all about oxygen.

I like using macro algaes so the tank can become a new consumer of co2 and source of oxygen each 24 hour period.

But then I've been know to think crazy things before.

so just my .02

 

[zesty]

I use an airstone, but I bury it in the middle of my chaeto ball in my fuge section of my sump. It's just the one that's the size of a tootsie roll and a small air pump. The idea is to help keep the CB from becoming one big ball and not getting flow into the center portion of the CB.

I've had to adjust it a few times to get where I'm not getting crazy salt creep, but I've gotten it situated to where it's not creating much if any salt creep.