A interrogate nearly fish and oxygen?
Im doing fishless cycling right now but previously my bio wheel wouldn't spin. I went to marineland's website and they suggested that I riddle the tank up to the bottom edge of the aquarium frame. So I did, now the bio-wheel is spinning.
However, near arent any more bubbles on the surface of the water since i filled up the tank. However, the surface of the river is still moving. Will fish still get oxygen even though there arent any bubbles?
just the simple act of filtration add oxygen to the water, though i would still use an airpump
Don't worry. You don't need bubbles to get oxygen into the river. Water gets dissolved oxygen, and expels carbon dioxide, through gas exchange that happens constantly at the water's surface. The way airstones and filter add oxygen to the water is not directly but by moving the hose down around so that all the water spends time at the surface. So all you stipulation is water movement that disturbs the surface and brings up some of the water from below, which is exactly what your BioWheel is providing. Your hose down is almost certainly at or near saturation height in terms of dissolved oxygen.
P.S. The only comment from other posters I seriously disagree next to is the suggestion to oil your BioWheels. This could result either in your BioWheel itself man covered with a film of oil, or the surface of your hose having a film of oil on top. Either agency, it's a bad thing. Don't use oil.
Answers: So long as there is a peaceable ripple on the surface the fish will be fine and it should meet the oxygen demands of the fish. You don't need a bubbler (over here in the UK we appointment them airpumps) and in fact they can drive off CO2 for plants. However whether you have a tank that is heavily stocked or contains fish that own high oxygen demands an airpump might not be a bad idea.
Also another entity, warmer water is less knowledgeable of holding dissolved oxygen, so during the summer months when it is warmer an airpump might be needed if the tank get too hot.
Just the movement of the water around the container will provide enough oxygen exchange for a normal number of fish. They dont NEED to have bubbles to carry oxygen.
Extra aeration will never do any harm, but unless the tank is overstocked or you have greatly sensitive fish, it's not needed.
Ian
I have a few stubborn wheels in the past, here's what I'd try:
1) Soak the reins briefly so it's all wet. When they stop spinning, one side dries out and the weight isn't even so it spins worse
2) Make certain that the up pipe is FULLY seated over the magnetic impeller. You'd be surprised how often this is the problem
3) Make sure that your filter pad aren't really crudded up. This is unlikely since you have no fish yet.
In short, there's a little "ramp" where on earth water will flow out of the top of the filter if there's a problem. Basically an overflow bypass. If water is coming out of that hindmost into the tank, you have some type of obstruction.
I've also added simply a drop of vegetable oil to the posts of the biowheel before to lube it. Gotta be careful not to obtain it into the water though.
The water doesn't necessarily need to FALL to achieve O2 into the water, it just needs to disturb the surface. If you're concerned, win a bubble wall and an air pump.
Good work on cycling the tank first!
