when should i turn on the air pump?

[rockhoe14er]

Don't fishes only go to the surface to gasp if the water is unsatisfactory, like high ammonia, nitrite or nitrate as this burns their gills?

Fish will deff go to the surface when their is low levels of o2 in the tank. This is why some people (myself included) with pressurized co2 can kill their fish if co2 levels get too high in the water because it pushes out the o2 in the water.

 

[coach_z]

you can use your filtration to fine tune the amount of surface agitation in your water to avoid surface film and such.

at the same time you need to limit the amount of surface agitation to prevent co2 from off-gassing from your tank. This only applies when you are injecting co2 into your tank by either DIY co2 or from pressurized co2.

Are you injecting co2? If not, you dont need to really worry about any of this.

 

[coach_z]

Fish will deff go to the surface when their is low levels of o2 in the tank. This is why some people (myself included) with pressurized co2 can kill their fish if co2 levels get too high in the water because it pushes out the o2 in the water.

CO2 and O2 are independent in water, higher levels of one doe not cause lower levels of the other. If O2 is at 100% saturation it does NOT mean that CO2 is at 0%. If you manage to get 100% O2 saturation,you can still have 10% CO2 saturation.

Fish 'breath' because of the different levels of O2 and CO2. If the water is saturated with CO2, O2 will pass into the gills but CO2 will not be able to leave the gills. Then a fish wont be able to take in any more O2. then the fish dies.

 

[Star_Rider]

*i have no injected/diy co2 and my airstone is a long tube with lots of tiny holes in it that runs along the back wall of my tank

as for whether i should run it in the morning or at night I think ill just run it both since i like the way it looks and sounds

since you are not injecting CO2 then it doesn't really matter if you run the air pump all the time.

btw, in this case, running the airpump will help keep the CO2 levels and O2 levels more consistent.

 

[rockhoe14er]

CO2 and O2 are independent in water, higher levels of one doe not cause lower levels of the other. If O2 is at 100% saturation it does NOT mean that CO2 is at 0%. If you manage to get 100% O2 saturation,you can still have 10% CO2 saturation.

Fish 'breath' because of the different levels of O2 and CO2. If the water is saturated with CO2, O2 will pass into the gills but CO2 will not be able to leave the gills. Then a fish wont be able to take in any more O2. then the fish dies.

I guess i stand corrected. I guess it has more to do with a concentration gradient than.

 

[coach_z]

*i have no injected/diy co2 and my airstone is a long tube with lots of tiny holes in it that runs along the back wall of my tank

as for whether i should run it in the morning or at night I think ill just run it both since i like the way it looks and sounds

I didn't see this earlier, since this is the case your CO2 PPM will naturally default to around 2-5PPM. You cant really increase or decrease the amount of available co2. Run your air whenever you want. Just keep your co2 levels constant

 

[Cerianthus]

yeah i have plants so i turn on the air pump once a day to break up that sticky film on top.
well I was thinking about these 3 things:
1. how during photo synthesis absorbs CO2 and releases O2 but when theres no light the plants start releasing CO2 back into the system
True: reverse respiration I think but not for all plants if memory serves. I would be more concerned with CO2 produced by the fishes/accumulating during the night.

2. CO2 only reaches the same amount as in the atmosphere due to gas exchange
Reaching Equilibrium takes time depending on the physical condition, etc, etc.

3. someone said the film layer prevents gas exchange
so yeah when I turn on the airpump, its gonna make lots of bubbles and break up that film on top and start causing lots of gas exchange and idk... do stuff
True but should not let film develop on top as other gases have to exchange as well. Let filter break up the film and remove. You may need to perform small but more frequent wc than what you are providing now.
Actual testing [O2], [CO2] at different time/condition can reveal more about how much O2 is produced by the plants or reversed , etc. etc.

Is there some certain time of the day I should turn on my airpump as to maximize the amount of CO2 thats in my tank
I would only turn on aeration if and only if tank is overstock with fishes where [CO2] may reach lethal level for some if not for all during dark period. If fishes are hanging near surface during middle of the night, would run air pump sporadically thru out the night but not near when light are to be turned on. I would never run aeration in planted tank, especially one with CO2 injection during daytime..

Hope this helped a bit