Worried about oxygen levels.

[motlot77]

I have to turn off my protein skimmer for 9 days and won't be able to do water changes either.

How can I keep the oxygen levels normal? Is there some type of test?

[kfowler]

Skimmers add very little oxygen to your tank. Keep surface level turbid and circulation good and you'll be fine.

Check out the seminar on Oxygen on www.reefvideos.com

[motlot77]

Awesome link and thanks for the advice!

Out of curiosity, how do I measure oxygen levels?

[dippin61]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9269010#post9269010 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kfowler
Skimmers add very little oxygen to your tank. Keep surface level turbid and circulation good and you'll be fine.

Check out the seminar on Oxygen on www.reefvideos.com

actually not quite true.. eric borneman was just at our club meeting yesterday and did his oxygen seminar with us. He's changed it a bit since the video on that site.

The mistake he made was that most of his tests were using his 75g tank. he re-ran the test on smaller tanks. The conclusion was, that for larger tanks, the skimmer does very little for oxygenation. however in smaller nano tanks, the skimmer actually does raise the oxygen levels quite a bit.

but the consensus is, that your lights are the most important thing when it comes to oxygenation of the water, due to photosynthesis. So if your power goes out, the first thing you should get going is your lights, not your flow.

the video i took of it yesterday should be up on reefvideos.com as soon as we can get it compressed and up.

[PatMayo]

dippin61, interesting. When the power went out a couple of months ago I never did get my lights going. I just concentrated on the pumps etc.

Where abouts are you located in Oregon. I would have driven down to see Eric. Darn.

Regards,

Pat

[dippin61]

I'm part of pnwmas. we're just out of portland. the meeting was actually held at the miluakie center. Was really cool. He did his salt study and the oxygen seminar.

yeh he told us about the differences, because we also brought up the fact that he said that skimmers dont do much, but then explained one of his collegues suggested he try on smaller tanks.

but on all of his studies, he actually thinks that the lights made the most difference on oxygenation of the water. And his graphs were pretty convincing. I guess another excellent reason to run a reverse light cycle with maybe some macro. or have a "mini" tank in your sump.

can you think what this trend will start??? Main tank up top, "Mini" tank down bottom, with zoas, shrooms, xenia. days of the regular old ugly dirty sump are gone? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[PatMayo]

Wow, I wish I would have known. I would have driven down.

yea, I use cheato on a reverse light, and it isn't that pretty down there.

You never know huh?/

Regards,

Pat

[bertoni]

Salifert makes a test kit for oxygen that seems to work, in my experience. Whether a skimmer adds oxygen to the water column depends on a lot of factors. A number have already been listed.

[kfowler]

Hey dippin61. Thanks for the update. You don't happen to have a digital version of his talk. Notes or something. I would love to see it.

[kfowler]

One more thought. If I remember correctly, didn't the tanks which showed an increase in oxygen due to photosynthesis contain a lot of corals. I wander if this holds true for FOWLR and tanks with no macro algae. Interesting.

[dippin61]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9287354#post9287354 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kfowler
Hey dippin61. Thanks for the update. You don't happen to have a digital version of his talk. Notes or something. I would love to see it.

Only thing i have is the videotape of it. Right now we sent it off to get compressed. hopefully it'll be up soon.

[SeanySean]

hey i'm up for the getting sumps looking pretty... spent more on it than my 200G lol