Aquarium air pump

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Aquarium air pump is a device that brings air into the aquarium. The air pumps are usually very alike but you can choose from many types of decorations, from which the air will come out to the aquarium. The most common is just an air stone. You put the air stone into the aquarium and start the pump. Another forms are aquarium ornaments like treasure chests, shells, which open if the decoration is full of air, divers and many more.

Such aerating devices make bubbles and the bubbles move the water surface and that is how they aerate the water. Choosing the right air pump is not so difficult. You just have to choose it according to the depth of your aquarium and the preasure you need for the ornament. But when you are choosing an ornamental aerator, you are choosing it according to that, how do you like it, or which would look best in your aquarium. And if you want to have your tank really good aerated, then you can combine the aerators.

The use of the air pump is really easy. You just do everything what the guide says. Mostly you just take out the air pump from the box, put the pump somewhere over the aquarium and the air stone into the aquarium and start it. Aerating stones gets filthy after some time, because the holes may caulk and you have to change it.

And how does and aerator work? The pump gets the air though a little tube and then the pump blows out the air to the water trough the stone, or ornament. The stones have small holes in them and from there comes the air. This stone may be long from few centimeters to a very long one, which makes a wall of bubbles. But for such stones you need a strong aerator, because it needs more power to push the air into the whole stone.

And why aerate the water? It is because fish and plants need air. Fish like humans breath oxygen and convert it into carbon dioxide. In the nature, the substrate at the bottom levels of rivers or creeks, is covered by plants and they create a lot of oxygen (but only during the day, at night they breath oxygen too, so there is less oxygen in the water, so do not turn off the aerator at night), but usually there are not enough plants in an aquarium. The next reason is, that when the water gets aerated, the water moves too and so the toxins move and they can be filtered. And not only toxins, but the fish waste too. If there were no aerator, the fish wastes could settle everywhere in the tank: on the plants, decorations. It would not look good and it is not good for the health of the plants and fish.

On the other hand, there are some issues about the air pumps. For example, in smaller aquariums they are able to create a strong movement of the surface and some fish hate it, like fish, which make bubble nests on the surface. Such fish are bettas, paradise fish and gourami. Another thing you should know is, that the deeper the air stone or decoration is, the bigger bubbles will reach the surface and the more will the surface move. It even may splash out the water from the tank. Furthemore some pumps may be noisy.

Generally, aquarium air pump could mean very nice decoration and useful equipment of your fish tank. It’s has the ability to create many different types of bubbles, which can look very nice and it’s ability to aerate the water makes it a good subject of your interest. They don’t cost much and they aren’t a heavy energy wasters. Usually, they need only 5 or 10 watt energy source. Bubbles from any aquarium air pump can be illuminated by colourful light source. You will create very unusual decoration which will attract people looking at your fish tank for many hours.





Images sources: aquatics-online.com; (a link to haddawaymj.freeserve.co.uk has been removed on 6 March 2010 as the website was not loading)

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Aquarium air pump

has been viewed times since June 30, 2009.