Fish tanks and air, anybody know about it?

happyhero

Hi hope this is ok to post here. My wife bought one of those 6 sided fish tanks a little while back which came with a air stone, pump etc. It has a diameter of aprox 10 to 12 inches and is about 12 to 14 inches high. She had 3 goldfish in there that we had managed to keep for a few years, but one just recently got weaker and weaker lying on its side. We` did seperate it and it seemed to recover but then after going back in the tank it did the same thing again and eventually died.

Now I know something else may be wrong but we have got envolved about what goes on with the air. My wife has looked after it cleaning it and refilling it over the years so she seems to know a little bit about it.

She has no instructions and we don't know what should happen with the air so although this may not be THE problem we want to get it right. It looks like there is a tube which is about 1 inch diameter and she pushes the small tube with the stone on it down this bigger tube. The water in the tube bubbles up along the inch tube until it comes out of some small holes at the top of the big tube, which seems to me to happen above the tank water level. My question is how can this be doing anything to the water in the tank? To me it just seems to be aereating the water in the tube. Also how far down the inch tube should the stone be pushed not that I can see that it will make any difference?

I am sure we must have something wrong here and would appreciate some advice.

ceebeeby

Hi Happyhero ....

Good news. On the basis that you had the fish for "a few years" you did okay!!! I know you hear stories of fish that last for 20 years, but this is fairly few and far between.

Push the airstone down as far as it will go. The bubbles aerate the water from beneath (The long tube should be open to the undergravel filter??)

HTH

beccatt

First of all, it sounds like your goldfish have lived to a decent age in this tank so I don't think you can be doing anything very wrong!! Usually if there is something wrong with the water quality they will develop noticeable signs of disease like spots or marks on their scales and fins.

Just before some of our goldfish have gone to the eternal sea in the sky (most of them after two and a half years) I have noticed that they seem to have trouble swimming upright, or stay on the bottom of the tank a lot. I believe it is something to do with swallowing too much air which affects their swim bladder. See this link for more details: http://www.netpets.com/fish/reference/freshref/swimbldr.html
It sounds to me like you're using the air stone fine and I don't think over-aerating the water is the problem, maybe try soaking the food as suggested in this article if you are worried the other fish will meet the same fate.
HTH

happyhero

ceebeeby wrote:

Hi Happyhero ....

Good news. On the basis that you had the fish for "a few years" you did okay!!! I know you hear stories of fish that last for 20 years, but this is fairly few and far between.

Push the airstone down as far as it will go. The bubbles aerate the water from beneath (The long tube should be open to the undergravel filter??)

HTH

Cheers for the quick answer. So to clarify, you are saying that although the bubbles will travel up the big tube it will still aeriate the water in the tank via the bottom filter of the big tube, is that correct? Also is that sufficient air going into the water?

HugoSP

happyhero wrote:

Cheers for the quick answer. So to clarify, you are saying that although the bubbles will travel up the big tube it will still aeriate the water in the tank via the bottom filter of the big tube, is that correct? Also is that sufficient air going into the water?

You don't need to pump air via the 1" tube.

We just have a donut shaped air stone that sits at the bottom of the tank. The air pump tube goes straight into that.

H

chrisw

As the bubbles come out and move up the big tube, they pull water up with them. To replace this, water is drawn down through the gravel and filter plate and then back up the big tube again. This means that the water is constantly being circulated and filtered through the gravel where bacteria break down the rubbish. Air dissolves into the water at the surface of the bubbles, although you can't see it, and this water with some air dissolved in it is then circulated throughout the tank by the above process.

Hope that makes sense.

happyhero

Cant see the thanks button so thanks guys for the help. Just one last thing, should the top of the large tube be submerged or proud of the tank water level.

DNKPets

Should be submerged slightly.

basill

As others have said your fish are doing OK, I find that the fancier the fish the shorter their life.
Do you change part of their water regularly? We have a water testing kit it has little bottles of solution which change colour when tank water is added to indicate the water condition. This can tell you quite alot and will indicate if you change water often enough.
The kit cost about £12 we dont use it every time but it has lasted a couple of years so far!

B

happyhero

I know I started this a little while ago but I felt it appropiate to add something at this point and maybe get a little further advice.

After a short time I now find that there are no bubbles coming out of the filter which was new a couple of months ago and does not look dirty or anything. I took the filter off and pushed the small tube down into the 1" tube and there are loads of bubbles. The pump is just not man enough it seems to pump air through the non return valve, through the small tube, out through the filter, especially when you push it deeper and deeper into the tank. The increase in weight of water above soon stops it when it did work.

So now I have an open small tube with no filter on the end and loads of bubbles, but is this ok?

It looks like any other fish tank, unless you look close you would not know there is no filter as it is not excessive but looks about right.

Can I leave it like this, I mean what does the filter do anyway?

I suppose I should get a more powerful pump, but is it ok like this now and will the fish suffer any problems due to having no filter?

Any help appreciated.

chatta

also oxygen is absorbed and gases exchanged in the water by the surface tension being broken so the bubbles dont have to be from the bottom of the tank. Did that make sense???? The filter after time contains bacteria that break down the nitrates etc that the fish produce