Aquarium aeration is the process by which you provide oxygen artificially to your fish. This is a very important thing to do, because since a home aquarium has a small water surface area, it is not big enough to sustain a sufficient amount of oxygen. Re-oxygenating the aquarium water is a very easy thing to accomplish, and you will not need a lot of equipment.
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To understand how this process works, let's look at the typical aquarium. There is a natural exchange of gases, oxygen going into the water, and carbon dioxide produced by your fish goes out of the water. In order for this process to take place at a rate sufficient for your fish to survive, the surface of the water must be disturbed a bit. The more this happens, the more transfer of gases can take place. This process happens naturally on a lake or river, since the water basically is in constant motion. |
In order to duplicate this surface agitation, air bubbles are pumped into the aquarium water and these help break up the surface of the water and allow this very important gas exchange. Also, this helps to move the water enough to mix up and distribute evenly all of the minerals and compounds both good and bad.
A good way to produce the proper amount of aquarium aeration is to attach air stones to an air pump. These stones are made of porous materials and produce the bubbles from the air being forced through it. Many aquarium filters have a design that uses these bubbles, and these work as long as they create enough agitation to break up the surface of the water.
The equipment you will need is an aquarium air pump, some clamps or regulators, rubber tubing and an air stone or another type of diffuser. Since the pumps can run other aquarium equipment, you may want to buy one that has capacity a bit more than your tank may need to be sure that you do not need to upgrade in the future.
So in closing, remember that aquarium aeration is one of the most important things you can do to help keep your fish healthy and thriving, and since it is really a very easy thing to do, make sure that you buy the necessary equipment and have it running in your aquarium. Your fish will thank you for it.
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