General Aquaria Discussion • Water oxygen

[Chrislisk]

Hi. So many questions.....sorry.

I’ve heard rift lake cichlids like oxygen rich water like their natural habitat. Given I only have a Venturi on my filter and no additional sponges or air stones, would it be wise to leave it on for more bubbles?

Would like to know what others use or do to. Thanks

[DJRansome]

Your GPH from all devices should total 8X to 10X. If you have that you have plenty of oxygenation.

[Chrislisk]

I have 8 x taking into account rock and substrate so I should be ok. Thank you! You’re very knowledgable

[Ichthys]

Venturis are just a gimmick. You’ll get much more oxygenation by removing it and having the filter outflow either horizontal at the surface or just below pointing up at a shallow angle to the surface.
Oxygenation happens at the surface so you want all the water to flow across the surface. What you get dissolving from bubbles is negligible.

[aconite]

I've played around with airstones (didn't really care for having bubbles in the water), venturis/diffusors (found them too noisy, personally, plus more bubbles), but now I just have my filter outputs disturbing the water surface, along with a circulation pump doing the same thing. It's all nice and quiet, and the entire surface of my tank is being agitated constantly. It has the added effect of creating a nice shimmering effect that plays over the sand when the lights are on.

[Chrislisk]

I have two internal filters currently (waiting for canister). Both are pointing at the surface making the entire surface agitated. Reading everyone’s comments seems Venturi and bubbles are waste of time. When my canister arrives I am going to leave one of the intervals in for extra filtration and water agitation.

[Cosi]

Salifert makes an inexpensive dissolved oxygen test if you really want to know your oxygen levels. ~8mg/L is the oxygen saturation level in hard freshwater at 78F. If lower than this, you can measure DO before and after modifications to see if there is any effect.