Adding air stone or sponge filter at night for planted tank without co2

I’ve been researching the benefits of running an air stone at night in a planted tank, I do not have co2, nor am I planning to have it and I understand that this is mainly used with co2 setups. But even without co2 it seems like it could be good to improve surface agitation at night to off gas co2 from the tank to give more oxygen for the fish as my plants will be using up the oxygen... I already have a HOB Aqueon quietflow 20 which I guess already agitates the surface, but I have modded it quite a bit (intake foam, foam on the inside, biorings and purigen) the flow seems a lot slower for sure, which has me questioning do I have enough filtration and/or surface agitation, should I add an air stone at night ? Or even better should I add a sponge filter and increase filtration whilst creating water agitation with the bubbles, but then do I run that filter only at night ? Would kinda seem weird to just do that. Having an extra filter in the tank would be a plus, as if the original filter would fail, there would a be a second one running. Is this all worth it or am I just reading too much into it?

 

Your probably reading too much. Unless you notice your fish gasping at the surface or gills going real fast you should be ok as is. Your fish will tell you.

 

HiAsh1176,
You don’t say how big the tank is? Regardless I run two filters in small tanks. I have 3 in some 20 gallon tanks. ( Shelles , fry grow outs)
By the sound of it your HOB filter with reduced flow could definitely have some help. It’s also very handy to have a spare filter as you GENTLY clean one at a time.
All filters run 24/7. An air stone is a waste of an air line in my opinion. I would run an extra sponge filter every time.

 

I my humble opinion you can never go wrong adding a sponge filter. I would run it 24/7 though instead of just at night.

 

Flyfisha,
It’s a 20 gallon high, loads of plants and nitrates are always under 5ppm, I think the plants really help with that, but defo been thinking I should add more filtration

 

I have been playing with a 2.5 gallon shrimp only tank just for a bit of fun.
It now occurs to me I have two filters in that little tank LoL.
My first under gravel filter and a tiny toy sponge filter.

 

Gee I must be the only one left in the single filter club. Lol.

 

I would go ahead and add the air stone. There's really no downside to running it at night.

If oxygen levels are unhealthily low you won't be able to tell by fish behavior. These are levels that will slow growth and increase susceptibility to infection but won't kill them outright.

The only way to really know would be to use a dissolved oxygen meter that can record levels overnight. Those are around $1,200 so it's probably more practical to just run an air stone at night...

 

Gee I must be the only one left in the single filter club. Lol.

I just run one filter on my 5.5 gallon tank. 10 gallon has both sponge and HOB. 55 has 2 of each

 

Gee I must be the only one left in the single filter club. Lol.

Open enrollment starts May 1, lol!

 

Thanks for the reply Everybody. I’ll look into sponge filters as it looks I am under filtered even though my filter is “hot roded”. I did try the model up which was the quietflow 30 but sadly it didn’t fit with glass lid (which was Aqueon 24x12) and was extremely loud which scared the cardinals into the other half of the tank.

 

Gee I must be the only one left in the single filter club. Lol.

Nope. Most of the tanks I had years and years ago all had single filters. Only tank that had a double filter was over stocked with heavy mess makers.

 

Great question! I think an air stone is always a good idea. The reason for CO2 build up is that when you turn off the aquarium lights at night the plants stop using the CO2 (plants take in CO2 and give off oxygen) and it builds up in the tank. That is why many people use a solenoid plugged into a timer that turns off the CO2 when the lights go off at night.