Putting oxygen into your tank

[Dirtydave]

I have to have oxygen when I sleep at night.Would it be beneficial to run oxygen from my oxygen generator to an airstone or sponge filter?zit would seem so to me but thought I'd ask around and get second opinions. 

[Eric R]

I wouldn't add pure oxygen to an aquarium personally. I believe that if the oxygen levels in your tank are higher than that in the surrounding room, the oxygen in the tank will end up dissolving in the air. If you have sufficient flow and agitation at the surface of your water to encourage gas exchange, and it's not way overstocked, your tank shouldn't really need it. I think you'd gain most of the same advantages of adding extra oxygen into your tank simply by running air from the room through an airstone into the tank, without depleting the oxygen in your breathing tank a lot faster.

Edited March 16, 2021 by ererer

[tekjunkie28]

No, don't do this.  

[Dirtydave]

On 3/16/2021 at 12:09 PM, tekjunkie28 said:

No, don't do this.  

Why?

[tekjunkie28]

1 minute ago, Dirtydave said:

Why?

Well for one its a medical device. 2. why would you need to do it?  If you have an air stone the tank will have "enough" oxygen.

As a side not have you ever had an indoor air quality test done?  

[Dirtydave]

I know its a medical device but what does that imply I thought it would be beneficial for fish to have ample oxegen.. as it is for me.Are you saying that fish can have too much oxygen?

[Dirtydave]

15 minutes ago, tekjunkie28 said:

Well for one its a medical device. 2. why would you need to do it?  If you have an air stone the tank will have "enough" oxygen.

As a side not have you ever had an indoor air quality test done?  

???

[tekjunkie28]

12 minutes ago, Dirtydave said:

I know its a medical device but what does that imply I thought it would be beneficial for fish to have ample oxegen.. as it is for me.Are you saying that fish can have too much oxygen?

yes.  Even humans can have too much O2.

[ChefConfit]

Running an air stone is a great idea, but I wouldn't run pure O2 through it. A small usb air pump will be sufficient to keep O2 saturation close to 100% iirc. Using your O2 tank would just be wasting money not to mention something you depend on for your health. 

But your thoughts that extra O2 would be beneficial to your tank especially at night is correct especially in a heavily planted tank. At night when there is no light for photosynthesis plants actually consume O2 and release CO2 so very heavily planted tanks can run into problems with low O2 saturation if they are not running an air stone. 

Also O2 poisoning is a thing. It's rare that hobbyists run into it but it does happen. I've heard horror stories of people basically giving their fish the bends because they used very cold water (which can be super saturated with O2) during a water change.

[CT_]

23 minutes ago, ChefConfit said:

Also O2 poisoning is a thing. It's rare that hobbyists run into it but it does happen. I've heard horror stories of people basically giving their fish the bends because they used very cold water (which can be super saturated with O2) during a water change.

I was skeptical about this, but wow it is a thing---and it even happens in the wild.  Cool info! Though, I hope to never see it in person.
http://www.aun.edu.eg/developmentvet/fish diseases/7_1.htm

I'm curious though, if the equilibrium CO2 levels in a normal aquarium or somewhere in the 2-3ppm and the high tech folks run 20-30ppm, that's about 1000% saturation.  How's that okay?

[ChefConfit]

20-30ppm might be 10x the normal CO2 saturation of aquarium water, but it isn't 10x the maximum saturation. Gas bubble disease occurs when the limit of total dissolved gasses is passed and there is more dissolved gas in the water than it can hold. 

CO2 poisoning to my knowledge is actually just asphyxiation and can be avoided by adequate levels of O2 in the water. So high levels of CO2 is safe provided there are also high levels of O2, which can be from photosynthesis or an air stone. 

[tekjunkie28]

That's very interesting.  I wasn't sure about the ppm of gases in an aquarium.  I never looked into because I have never ran CO2. Another reason is that CO2 levels can fluctuate based on indoor air quality. Indoor concentrations of CO2 are likely off the charts for most homes. I have only done a small amount of air sealing in my house and I already need mechanical ventilation. If i don't keep a window or 2 cracked my  CO2 goes up pasted 2000ppm.  That high enough to dissolve minerals from bones and well past the 1000ppm where it starts to affect your thinking processes. 

I have attached a pic of my air quality monitor. You can see how high my co2 is and that is from a room where the window was open 3". 

[gardenman]

I don't think pure oxygen would be harmful to your fish as fish are packed with pure oxygen for shipping on a regular basis. It's pretty much the norm for long-term shipping, so it wouldn't be overly harmful. Would it help them? Eh, probably not. Unless your fish are gasping at the surface each morning when the lights come on, your plants are unlikely to be adding too much CO2 and using up enough oxygen overnight to make adding supplemental oxygen necessary. My plants don't typically pearl during the day as I don't add supplemental CO2, but first thing in the morning there will be some pearling as the plants take advantage of the CO2 produced overnight.

 

[Medkow74]

2 hours ago, tekjunkie28 said:

That's very interesting.  I wasn't sure about the ppm of gases in an aquarium.  I never looked into because I have never ran CO2. Another reason is that CO2 levels can fluctuate based on indoor air quality. Indoor concentrations of CO2 are likely off the charts for most homes. I have only done a small amount of air sealing in my house and I already need mechanical ventilation. If i don't keep a window or 2 cracked my  CO2 goes up pasted 2000ppm.  That high enough to dissolve minerals from bones and well past the 1000ppm where it starts to affect your thinking processes. 

I have attached a pic of my air quality monitor. You can see how high my co2 is and that is from a room where the window was open 3". 

Do you live in an area where you have to run a gas furnace or boiler for heat? 

[tekjunkie28]

3 minutes ago, Medkow74 said:

Do you live in an area where you have to run a gas furnace or boiler for heat? 

No, my house is totally electric.  Why?

[Medkow74]

Was wondering if your heater could malfunctioning causing the higher carbon dioxide readings.

[tekjunkie28]

Nope. That's pretty normal for a house. That is why ERVs and HRVs exist. Also a bunch of homes have that outdoor air intake on the HVAC unit... its dumb but works.  It's just VERY inefficient.

Edited March 22, 2021 by tekjunkie28

[RockMongler]

Remember, the reason people inject CO2, is because CO2 is a small portion of the air we breathe, but is very important for plant growth.  It's tricky to get your water anywhere near CO2 saturated just from the air in a room at any given moment.  Oxygen is also very important, but it makes up a much larger percentage of the air mixture.  Generally, an air pump bubbling room air through your tank will provide more than enough oxygen to reach saturation in the water, but the amount of CO2 in the air being bubbled is much lower.

This picture should give some idea of what I mean.

So, can you run O2 into your tank at night?  Sure, probably won't hurt anything.  Is it going to do you any good?  Probably not.  People specifically run CO2 injection because they have maxed out all other avenues for pushing plant growth (high end lighting, well tuned fertilizers).  No one really injects oxygen because the atmospheric oxygen you pump in with an airstone or through gas exchange from surface agitation is enough to get more than enough for your aquatic critters in nearly 100% of situations.  The only time I'd consider it is if tank temps were getting very high (which reduces O2's solubility in water) to help keep fish alive until I could get the tank's temperature under control.

[Medkow74]

27 minutes ago, tekjunkie28 said:

Nope. That's pretty normal for a house. That is why ERVs and HRVs exist. Also a bunch of homes have that outdoor air intake on the HVAC unit... its dumb but works.  It's just VERY inefficient.

I've been in the HVAC/R industry for thirty years. I could talk for hours but don't want to get off topic. Lol

[Dirtydave]

12 hours ago, ChefConfit said:

Running an air stone is a great idea, but I wouldn't run pure O2 through it. A small usb air pump will be sufficient to keep O2 saturation close to 100% iirc. Using your O2 tank would just be wasting money not to mention something you depend on for your health. 

But your thoughts that extra O2 would be beneficial to your tank especially at night is correct especially in a heavily planted tank. At night when there is no light for photosynthesis plants actually consume O2 and release CO2 so very heavily planted tanks can run into problems with low O2 saturation if they are not running an air stone. 

Also O2 poisoning is a thing. It's rare that hobbyists run into it but it does happen. I've heard horror stories of people basically giving their fish the bends because they used very cold water (which can be super saturated with O2) during a water change.

Thanks for your input however money is not an issue as the oxygen generator is free and runs indefinitely

[Dirtydave]

2 hours ago, Medkow74 said:

Do you live in an area where you have to run a gas furnace or boiler for heat? 

No

[Dirtydave]

On 3/21/2021 at 11:35 PM, ChefConfit said:

Running an air stone is a great idea, but I wouldn't run pure O2 through it. A small usb air pump will be sufficient to keep O2 saturation close to 100% iirc. Using your O2 tank would just be wasting money not to mention something you depend on for your health. 

But your thoughts that extra O2 would be beneficial to your tank especially at night is correct especially in a heavily planted tank. At night when there is no light for photosynthesis plants actually consume O2 and release CO2 so very heavily planted tanks can run into problems with low O2 saturation if they are not running an air stone. 

Also O2 poisoning is a thing. It's rare that hobbyists run into it but it does happen. I've heard horror stories of people basically giving their fish the bends because they used very cold water (which can be super saturated with O2) during a water change.

Fish are often shipped in pure oxygen for 3 days with no problems

[ChefConfit]

Yes and no. They are shipped in water and the empty space in the bag is filled with pure O2. The O2 only enters the water through normal surface gas exchange so O2 saturation can never exceed 100%. Pumping pure O2 through an airstone could force enough O2 into the water to supersaturate it, just like putting too much CO2 through a diffuser could. It's an unlikely scenario, but could happen.

Actively pumping pure O2 into an aquarium through an air stone and filling the dead space in a fish bag with pure O2 are definitely not the same thing. 

[Dirtydave]

Guess I'll refrain from the o2.Its not like I don't have enough surface agitation. HOB,airstone  and sponge filter in every tank.I just thought since its here and doesn't cost extra to use it that way ,I'd try it.Well thanks for the thoughts from everyone. Please check out my question in general discussion on what fish eat duckweed other than goldfish and koi.Trying to find out for a friend.