Need for the Aeration of the fish tank?

[Bob Vento]

I thought that the process of the bed water flowing fast back into the fish tank provided the oxygen for the fish?  I also used a suggestion from another member ... of drilling angled holes in my grow bed drain pipe to create a venture affect thus introducing more oxygen into the fish tank. My system is flood and drain 24/7.

However, the more I read ... a lot of you are providing extra aeration to your tanks... is that necessary or just a precautionary measure?

If so ... what would ya'll suggest I buy, for a reasonable price, for aerating my fish tank to insure proper oxygenation of the water for my fish?

Sure would like some advise and comments. 

Thanks,
Bob

[matthew ferrell]

Peroxide is not good on fish.  See my dead fish pics for an example on how to kill 1000 pounds in 10 minutes.

However I was using 35% solution.  The residue on an air stone would not likely cause harm to the fish.

FYI this is a good percentage for those of you who are white and want to become albino.  Hurts like hell, but makes you skin paper white.

Vlad Jovanovic said:

Now, I've never made any meth, but I thought those 'chemists' used the sodium hydroxide lye (useless for AP, and only good for gel soaps really), and not the potassium hydroxide lye for some reason or another..? (yeah, both are called lye).

I'm guessing you need the sodium hydroxide lye for the olives? Which I haven't a clue about how to go about making in a home environment...TC's link looks great...

Yeah the perborate is pretty cool, and cleans EVERYTHING. Pretty safe to use too, unless you're a total f***ing moron.

(I'll save TC the trouble this time, and post my public service announcement/disclaimer here....this isn't directed at anyone specific, least of all you Jon.....

"DONT GO DOING SOMETHING THAT WOULD PUT YOU IN THE CATEGORY OF 'TOTAL F***ING MORON'. LIKE MIXING HYDROGEN PEROXIDE (OR PERBORATE) WITH BLEACH. Or "...dumping a bucket of the stuff into their fish tank thinking it would take care of dissolved oxygen problems or something"...

Holy crap TC! That site you linked TC has got it ALL! And in what ever quantities you could need. From 1 lb to 2000lbs! The place I can source a lot of that stuff here makes you buy in pretty goofy quantities...like how many spider mites can you kill with 25 litres of essential oil of lavender (or bars of soap for that matter)..?

Jon Parr said:

No TC, just peroxide. Soak them overnight, quick rinse and plug them back in, no worry about residual acid or bleach, 'cause peroxide is harmless to fish and plants, and the tiny amount left over in the stone is trivial to the biofilter.

That's cool, glad. Never heard of sodium perborate tetrahydrade. I'd love to have a dry storage product like that, and be able mix stronger solutions occasionally. Where and how do you buy that stuff? The US is getting pretty tough to buy some chemicals with the threat of bomb makers and Meth-heads. Like lye for instance. We wanted to make olives last year, having been given buckets of olives. Turns out lye is pretty much outlawed now, since it's used in making Chrystal Meth

[matthew ferrell]

Some fish like to follow the air bubble up and jump out to the gravel below.  I'm looking at you brook trout.

TCLynx said:

ya can never have too much air, well I suppose blowing so much air into your tank that your are boiling the poor fish right out might be overkill but you can always do something with the extra air, even if it is just having an extra tank to aerate so you can make worm or compost tea or having the extra air to pump into a tank or barrel to prep water by blowing out the chlorine or to be able to make pH adjustments to the top up water before use.  Or having an extra tank with air for salt dips/bath when getting new fish etc and so on.

So Vlad?  How many bars of soap would you kill with 25 liters of essential oil of lavender?

like how many spider mites can you kill with 25 litres of essential oil of lavender (or bars of soap for that matter)..?

sorry couldn't resist

[Tom OBrien]

I don't understand how these trout survive in the wild. The rainbow trout I got just don't seem to want to stay in the tank.

[Bob Campbell]

After you wrote this I started using Sodium Perborate tetrahydrate in my 1600 gallon (6000 liter) pool.  I'm keeping the salt at only 0.1% and after about 1 month it's still working great.  I've only had to add 3 lbs twice.   That's a cost of about $12.50 per month.

Vlad Jovanovic said:

I just use the Sodium Perborate tetrahydrate (solid form of hydrogen peroxide...just cuz I have a big bag of it lying around, and it'll keep for ever, unlike the liquid hydrogen peroxide), mix it with water to get the desired strength of hydrogen peroxide solution, and soak my air stones in that. Then rinse, dry out (and sometimes rinse again if I think I over did it, but my water is hard and has a high pH so I usually don't bother with multiple rinses)...It takes care of any calcium carbonate build up on/in the stones (since hydrogen peroxide is pretty acidic) and "sterilizes" at the same time...

(hehe...just be careful not to knock over the vinegar and bleach at the same time, if you are going that route)...

[George]

For what reason?

Bob Campbell said:

After you wrote this I started using Sodium Perborate tetrahydrate in my 1600 gallon (6000 liter) pool.  I'm keeping the salt at only 0.1% and after about 1 month it's still working great.  I've only had to add 3 lbs twice.   That's a cost of about $12.50 per month.

[Bob Campbell]

@George - I wanted to set my pool up as a natural pond with a bio filter, but my wife would not let me.  I don't like chlorine and this is the compromise solution I came up with.  It's working very well so far.  The pool is clear and pleasant to swim in

[Jon Parr]

Interesting, Bob. Any odor or taste or color or weirdness swimming in peroxide? I assume eventually there could be a sodium buildup, but no biggie for a swimming pool, eh? Where do you buy it at? You might also consider barley straw. Apparently rotting barley produces lignin, which produces peroxide in sunlight, keeping ponds clear of algae. 1600 gal is a nice size to try a home-made trash can filter full o straw. Been meaning to try it myself on our 18' doughboy.

[Bob Campbell]

Jon I have not noticed any difference due to the soduim perborate which I buy from goodsoaps.com. at about $2.00/lb.

I don't have much salt in the water, but I think I can feel the difference.  The water feels like soft water.

I tried barley straw in my Koi pond, and even went so far as to grow my own.  But in the end I felt it did not work well enough.  Just a small amount of salt is all a pond needs to keep the algae at bay. I keep my Koi pond at 0.15%

I put this water in over a month ago and so far it's taken 6 lbs of sodium perborate.  (3 lbs twice).  NaCl is at 0.9%

Our temperature has been high 90's and the pool water is 81F today.

I don't think I'll ever get my wife to see the benefit of a natural pond, but this uses no chlorine so it works for me.   I guess I could have gone with a saltwater pool, but I wanted to experiment with this.  

I'm pretty sure this is what Harbin Hot Springs uses in there pools.

[Jon Parr]

Hmm. I didn't know NaCl salt stalled algae. And I thought saltwater pools were just for comfort, not algae control. I'll look into that. Thanks for the info.

[Bob Campbell]

Yes I've been using it for many years in my Koi pond.  

These plants are growing in the stream and are not affected adversely by the low level of salt.

Without the salt this pond was a solid green mess.  I would use a pole and wind up the string algae into heavy balls about the size of a bowling ball.

The one good thing about the algae was that it allowed my 6 starter fish to produce plenty of fry.  The fry could hide in the algae until they were large enough to swim with the parents.  I have not had any new fish for about 7 years.since I began using salt.

I buy the salt for soft water systems, and make sure it says pure salt.

By the way pumice and silicon based floor sweep in those fabric pots works great for plants in the stream.

Jon Parr said:

Hmm. I didn't know NaCl salt stalled algae. And I thought saltwater pools were just for comfort, not algae control. I'll look into that. Thanks for the info.