What do you divers think about this....

[Hommeworks]

crazy idea. I've been reading that when I make seawater, I should run an airiator over night to increase the oxygen level. So I was thinking maybe I could get a scuba cylinder of 40% Nitrox and bubble the water with a more saturated concentration of pure oxygen. I'd have to free flow it slowly into the seawater because it might be tough to find an airiator that is oxygen clean.(don't want to blow up the neighborhood)

At a partial pressure greater than 1.6ata oxygen is deadly too us humans. Do you suppose that in a 24" deep reef tank, my animals will convulse and die?

[semajftw]

I think that would be overkill. Water can only be saturated with so much O2.

I'm no expert, but you should be able to just throw a power head in there to mix the new batch of saltwater and the air/water surface agitation should be enough to saturate the water with O2 (at least as much that is needed). Dont forget the heater also.

HTH - James

[Minnreefer]

I am not a diver, but that is not necassary to go into extra steps to super saturate the water. If the aquarium has a skimmer and a few power heads you should not have a problem, When mixing new water many people just mix it with no problem HTH

Jon

[tdwyatt]

Originally posted by Hommeworks
crazy idea. I've been reading that when I make seawater, I should run an airiator over night to increase the oxygen level. So I was thinking maybe I could get a scuba cylinder of 40% Nitrox and bubble the water with a more saturated concentration of pure oxygen.

Well, I AM a diver, but the big thing here is not that you need to saturate the water column with O2 (although you max out pretty quickly on O2 sat), but that making sure that CO2 is saturated in the water column (which also happens pretty quickly). You don't have to have an airstone even unless you are using it to create the turbulance necessary to mix the water. A good powerhead angled so that there is plenty of turbulance at the surface as well as current to completely mix the seawater is all that is necessary. CO2 sat aids in promoting the development of the carbonate/bicarbonate buffer system. Both O2 sat and CO2 sat occur within the first 10 to 12 hours of mixing with current and surface turbulance and agitation.

Save the air tank idea for a 55 gal drum of water and a bottle of dishwashing detergent! Heh, you (and the deck) will be squeeky clean!