One of the five keys to any healthy aquarium is aeration. In an aquarium with even moderate amounts of fish, aeration is essential for healthy fish. The aeration not only keeps the fish healthy, it keeps the beneficial bacterial populations healthy.
One way to get good aeration is by having the surface of the aquarium be water which has rough turbulent “choppy” appearance to it. This can be the discharge from a filter outlet or the flow from an in-aquarium pump (a “wavemaker” or a “powerhead”).
The other way to get excellent aeration is through the use of airstones. Contrary to popular mythology, airstones do an excellent job of aeration because of the many bubbles rising through the water, AS LONG AS THE AIR PUMP IS LARGE ENOUGH TO PUT OUT HUNDREDS OF BUBBLES PER SECOND.
If one has a well stocked aquarium aeration becomes VERY important. If the aeration is shut down by something like a power outage, the results can be tragic. If one heavily stocks aquariums one needs to think about generators or battery operated air pumps. I lost about several thousand dollars of large mbuna when the power to my house went out once. I now have a generator.
It is also important to consider redundancy in aeration as critical in any heavily stocked aquarium. Let us say one has a heavily stocked tank with a bladed circulation pump aimed at the surface to provide the aeration. Bladed circulation pumps go out ALL the time. Now Murphy’s Law will apply here and the bladed pump will go out just after one has gone to bed. And in the morning one will wake up to a tank of dead fish. Think two circulation pumps or two air pumps in a heavily stocked aquarium.
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There should be at least two devices providing aeration in any heavily stocked aquarium.
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Aeration in More Depth
Here is the topics and chapters covered here-in:
9.1. Aeration in Depth
9.2. Aeration and Turbulence
9.3. Air Stones
9.4. Skimmers and Spray Bars
9.5. Aeration and Temperature
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In your experience, is there any particular style of wavemaker or powerhead that seems to be better at creating the type of turbulent flow at the water’s surface that you suggest? Can gyre style wavemakers/pumps create this type of turbulance?
In reply to Eric …. I haven’t noticed any differences.
Hi Dave,
Have you ever had an issue with ‘too much’ aeration? If there could be such a thing… I have a canister running an outlet pointing up at the surface and a wavemaker running from the opposite side of the tank creating a lot of turbulence. I’m finding the canister is filling with air which I have to ‘shake out’ and air bubbles form on the algae wall at the back of my aquarium.
In reply to Jack … You will get air bubbles in canisters and air bubbles on algae walls with any properly aerated tank.
Can a glass tank lid suffocate the fish in a tank? I am about to switch my UGF from using air stones to power heads. The lid has maybe 1/2 square inch of openings from various holes and gaps, but otherwise encloses the tank (I once had a fish jump through the small gap between a canopy and a HOB). The lid is 1 inch above the water surface. The current air stones bring in fresh air from outside the tank. With only power heads, I can adjust the surface agitation, but it seems like the air between the waterline and the lid would get stale and depleted of oxygen. Am I worrying about nothing, or is this a legitimate concern?
In reply to Tom …. I have had many heavily stocked tanks with relatively sealed tank top and no air bubblers. I’ve never seen a problem.
Apologies in advance for many comments and questions over a short timespan, as a begginer, while absorbing much information, doubts arise.
As mentioned before I have a +-37l aquarium with three plants, two female platys that I plan to increase two six, and an Eheim 150 canister filter with wool and ceramic rings that I plan to replace with k1. The output of the filter has a spray bar (default for the filter). This spray bar does NOT seem to produce much turbulence on the surface.
First I would like to understand if I need more aeration (particularly when adding up to six fish total), as there does not seem to be a ‘testing method’ described in your articles, other than looking at fish (fish seem ok for now). I should mention that in summer temps may go up to 29 even. (right now, a fan keeps it at 26-27º with room temp being at 29-30º, no a/c).
Secondly, I want to understand which method should I choose, considering that I value silence over almost anything else, as the aquarium is pretty close to a bedroom. Should a powerhead inside the aquarium pointed at the surface do the trick?
Thanks for your help in advance, and apologies again for the comment spree.
In reply to Jaume …. Just try different things and pick the one that works the best. I suspect a fan will be more than adequate.
Hi Dave, how good of a job if anything do the Venturi feature on small powerheads do of aeration? I run under gravel filters with powerheads but still run a wave maker and air stones as I can’t position the powerheads to create enough turbulence on the surface. I’ve never used the venturis that come with the powerheads but can easily add them if they’d be beneficial. The noise isn’t much of an issue.
Can you aerate a tank too much? I have an air stone and a filter that pulls air in through a tube and also arates the water. This is all in a 20 gallon with Cherry Barbs, Cardinals, and Corys
Hello Dave, I recently got a high power air pump as a replacement for crappy pet store ones, and had heard that restriction of airflow can cause overheating and damage to the pump, it is metal so it has been getting very hot although this seems to be normal for the specific product. I don’t have it running at full force as I have it divided through several aquariums using a splitter, but I would assume that air flow would do little damage to the pump, and this is another case of misunderstanding physics but wanted to inquire. Do you know anything about this?
In reply to StephaneL ……….. Sorry, I’ve got no input on this question other than to say the literature that came with the pump should specify a minimum air flow IF THERE IS ONE.