Setting up my second loach tank.
- Thread starter MultipleTankSyndrome
- Start date
What I meant by that was that live plants can seriously clog and mess up equipment. That could happen to literally anyone with a planted tank that has more than a sponge filter, regardless of whether or not Loaches Online is to be taken with a pinch of salt.
Why is it that such experienced botia keepers don’t seem to use air pumps to actually oxygenate the tank both day and night?
Surface agitation is just not enough!
Surface agitation is just not enough!
I can tell you that Chiefkeith did. He even made a thread about it to let other users know, which I'll link if I can find it.
Not entirely sure why Martin Thoene didn't, though. I do remember him saying that his tank was a case of making things work with existing equipment and that he planned to get more pumps/powerheads as an upgrade when he could save up for them, so perhaps he just hadn't saved up yet.
Not entirely sure why Martin Thoene didn't, though. I do remember him saying that his tank was a case of making things work with existing equipment and that he planned to get more pumps/powerheads as an upgrade when he could save up for them, so perhaps he just hadn't saved up yet.
I am looking out of my window at a river, which has all sorts of fish including loaches. I have traveled on many rivers and canals rich in modesta. Some have been as smooth as glass, and others had serious surface agitation either from recent heavy rainfall, or more locally from the wake of the long tail boat.
Not one of them had an airstone.
I have heard this said regarding airstones: https://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11322&p=229713&hilit=naty#p229713
Not sure how valid it is, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was true.
Not sure how valid it is, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was true.
It's too simple an answer; just about impossible to overthink and overanalyze...
And not one of them had fish living their entire lives confined in a tiny space of only a few cubic feet of water...and none of them had densities of fish life even remotely approaching that of even the most sparsely stocked aquarium.
Apples and oranges.
There's that overanalyzing thing kicking in again. An unspecified member of an obsolete Dutch forum did some sort of calculation examining the efficiency of bubbles? I wonder if he ever actually set up and maintained an aquarium with fish in it...
Bubbles move water, and increase aeration. Literally anybody who has kept fish knows this. Is more oxygenation produced by the water movement, or by the bubbles themselves? The mysterious investigator claims to have the answer; did he consider all the possible variables? Temperature, depth of water, total volume of air being supplied, size of bubbles, water chemistry, presence or absence of other water movement producers, and likely a dozen other factors would affect this question, to such an extent that the question becomes literally meaningless in a practical sense to a fishkeeper and his tank. Does it really matter which of their attributes is slightly more or less important?
Airstones work. Especially as a back-up to other means of aeration, they are a perfect safety net that will drastically improve the survivability of fish in any aquarium in the event of a power outage or mechanical failure that cripples the main systems. An air pump on a different circuit than other pumps and filters is, IMHO, a basic necessity for a fish keeper. Martin Thoene's sadly deceased fish probably agree with me, too bad he didn't get the memo.
And, yes, live plants increase filter maintenance. That's just the way it is.
True.
Perfect. For you.
I have got a water drip continuously onto the surface of each of my tanks. As well as other function, provides surface agitation in case of power cut.
Each to his own.
I honestly feel lucky that the airstones available to me produce so much surface agitation for their size. Not sure if they're battery powered or not, but if they are, they'll be more valuable than I thought.
For perhaps a more positive update, the remainder of the baby Odessa barbs growing out in the 110 liter with the green neon/cardinal tetras appear to be doing well as of today. Not sure how many there are left because they don't school very tight, but they seem like they have a pretty good chance of growing up to make it to this tank and join the slightly larger and hardier Odessas I will get to replace the ones that died.
