Is there such thing as too much??

[Poet2dagger27689]

Is there such thing as too much oxygen in a 55 gallon tank? I have a 24'' bubble wand in the back for a bubble wall. Then a pump that sucks of the bubbles and makes then smaller and shoots them out. I wanted more water movement, but I still don't know exactly how much is too much for that. One more question. My tank has unatrually high nitrates and I have noe fish in it. It has been this way for 13 weeks now. I have done water changes and they don't help. I am running low on cash and I have 2 protien skimmers. I have done a thurough check of any dead matter and got a starfish to make even more sure he lasted a long time and died because of lack of food while I was on vaca. All the input you can give me I am a human sponge for info..spread the word.

[alton]

What type of filter are you using? How many pounds of live rock? How deep is your sand bed? I haven't used an air pump for my saltwater tank since 1982. By now you should have a large salt creep on the back side of your tank?

[Thunderkat]

I think your protein skimmers are good oxygenation. If you just needed flow you can go with a power head (http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=AS1111). You dont' have to buy that from the place I linked or the exact one I linked, just showing you what is out there. You can find pet stores here in San Antonio that have power heads for sale. I do recommend maxijet but that is only because I have used some and haven't had any problems with them ever.

I think you will be pleased with the flow of a power head and how quiet they are compared to an air pump.

What did you use to seed the bacteria in your tank when you first started it up?

One of the things I recommend is just getting some seawater from an existing aquarium to help get yours started. Even better is if you can get "live" sand or "live" rock from somebody. The "live" stuff is sand or rock that comes from the ocean and has so much life on it and in it that people refer to it as live.

Live rock and live sand have organisms that actually filter your water and make it cleaner so getting some of that to start your aquarium is awesome. If you are low on cash filling your aquarium full of live rock can be a little expensive.

I have heard of people going to Corpus and getting sand from the dunes out there for their tanks then seeding it with live sand.

Do you have a refugium? Some people use activated carbon in their fuges to grow bacteria on and that, once it has copious bacteria growing on it, can act as well as live rock and live sand if you use enough. Richard made a post on the activated carbon and it is still up on the first page.

[matt]

I suggest you start with a book; "The coral reef aquarium" by Ron Shimek. It's a small book that provides a great foundation of understanding reefkeeping. Once you've read that (a couple of times, probably!) you'll have an easier asking specific questions.

Regarding O2 content in saltwater aquariums, it's typically saturated if you have any sort of protein skimmer and decent quality air in your house. The bubbles you're talking about are not more dissolved O2, just bubbles. They're probably not going to hurt anything.

Get the book, you'll really like it, and it's cheap. Have fun and welcome to MAAST!

[Poet2dagger27689]

Thanks guys..

[GaryP]

Salt water has a fairly low saturation level for oxygen, about 6-7 ppm for the salinity and temperature we run our tanks. An adequately designed tank with a wet/dry, skimmer, and/or adequate circulation should not require supplemental oxygenation under normal circumstances. Besides not being necessary the other big reason for not using bubblers is that you are going to have to deal with a ton of salt creep.