surface agitation, is more better or ?

[monty703]

I have been wondering about this for quite some time, and really can't find a decent answer to this question, so putting to all members here to add your cents worth.

 

Spray Bars....more surface agitation....good or bad?

 

Single/Double sponge filters with periscope....do you put it above the water surface so the water

cascades down, or level with the surface to spray across the water?

 

Simple telescoping sponge filters.....bubble rising to the surface.   Do you turn them on full or ?

 

HOB filters....water pouring down into the tank causing a vortex below.  Do you put something inside

the output to control this?

 

IF more agitation is good....why, and what do YOU use?

[Roborep1]

More agitation is purported to cause more gas exchange with atmosphere. Those bubbles getting dragged down oxygenate the water.

Too much with floating plants will make the plants not happy. That's been my experience at least.

With Shrimp you don't want so much cascading that your causing a vortex as you said. Frankly a spray bar or sponge will provide plenty of oxygenation.

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[d0pey]

I'd be careful with sponge filters and low tanks... I always found shrimps on the floor cause they'd be blown out

[DETAquarium]

Surface agitation is good, but you have to be sure the water is breaking and not just agitating. This has been my experience with canister filters in general, you can use the spray bar but it won't break the surface of the water, unless you have it positioned above the water level. The idea is oxygenation and saturating the water column, this is why I chose to use the Choice Bubbler for all my canister filters.

[Shrimpy Daddy]

Surface agitation is good, but you have to be sure the water is breaking and not just agitating. This has been my experience with canister filters in general, you can use the spray bar but it won't break the surface of the water, unless you have it positioned above the water level. The idea is oxygenation and saturating the water column, this is why I chose to use the Choice Bubbler for all my canister filters.

 

+1

 

Yes, a lot of people though water movement at the water surface is called agitation. This is utterly wrong. Oxygen has poor water solubility. In order for it to dissolve, it needs to leverage on atmospheric pressure and difference of concentration in the air vs water to dissolve. Due to water has pretty strong surface tension (especially you have protein or bio-film at the top of water), this will prevent oxygen from dissolving fast enough. As such, you will need something to break the surface effectively. Based on my experience, there are two methods that will never fail:

1. Air bubble solution. Be it air-stone, sponge filter or anything that creates bubble that will flow up and breaks up large water surface. This is a disadvantage, which is water may splash every where and caused your tank to lose water much faster.
2. Placing filter outlet, be it spray bar, jet or lily pipe, at least 1 inch above water level. This will create a water fall effect (it is like venturi effect) that force the water surface to be continuously carry down by the stream of water. The problem with this method is that it is very noisy.

For myself when comes to designing the aeration, I will always go for double or triple fail-proof. I usually adopt both of above plus I have a tertiary filter (internal filter) that has self-airing venturi outlet.