air or no air?

[jcardona1]

i run 2 on my 210g with 3" bubble disks. doesnt bother me as theyre set against the back wall and my tank is 2ft wide

 

[BIGgourami]

they always seems supersluous and kind of kitchy to me...

unless you're medicating a tank or runnin git at like 85 degrees i really dont see a need for 'oxygenation' by way of an air pump...

most air stones fail anyway cause the bubbles aren't small enough to really diffuse any good ammount of air into the water anyway

 

[puffcrusader696]

Bubbles iritate me. Bubbles create unwanted noise and seem to waste tank space. (fish dont usually swim thru the bubbles).

lol i have a fish that will like hang in them all day... and my puffer used to have a huge amount of bubbles and he would like try to ride them all the time. my fish are insane!!

 

[puffcrusader696]

yes, but only in one tank. the fish dont really like them, and the air stones never stay secured, they always float up and it makes me mad.

i use black airline tubing and bury them under a pile of gravel... as for sand i just silicone it to the back and put a decoration in front of it.

 

[AMG]

I don't have any air pumps running on my tanks currently.

 

[Tommydeal]

Great thread, I've thought about this question a lot and done some experimenting. In my experience (and many have already said this) if you have enough surface agitation, air pumps are not neccesary. Some fish do like them though and they can be very useful as a sponge filter. You shoudn't use them and don't need them if you have a planted tank. Some of my tanks have them just because I don't always want to point my canister outlets toward the surface and when my water level is high, the HOB's don't agitate the surface much. Whether to pump or not to pump really depends on the situation.

 

[Gr8KarmaSF]

Sam is also over 6 feet long and bubbles are probably his least worry.

He likes to be tickled, kinda like his owner...lol

 

[StripeGirl]

My rays love bubbles,My big ray(stevie) loves to sit on top of a big sponge filter.

 

[koop171]

I run some with and some without

My RBP tank does not have a air pump. but my powerheads do have buble making capablity.
My feeder tank is bubble city b/c its overpopulation I have one of the biggest pumps you can get thats not one of those crays 1/4HP hufferthings.


So I didn't vote b/c i would have to anwser yes and no

 

[vivid930]

I just put air in my tank, because when my 220 finally gets delivered I plan on having bubbles walls on the sides of the tank....

Bubble walls are great when you have fish that have a rep for being tank busters. My pacu won't swim through them, so I have them at either end of my 90 gallon. He never gets up enough of a head of steam to bang the tank ends that way.