Can a tank be poisoned by oxygen?

[salty joe]

I'm still thinking about using a wet/dry filter, mainly for gas exchange. Would running pure O2 through the wet/dry be dangerous for the tank?

Would running pure O2 through the wet/dry work as well as outdoor air for removing CO2 from the water?

 

[fryman]

The wet/dry filter design I'm familiar with won't do much oxygenating the water. Seems like you are thinking about adding in some sort of air-pump driven diffuser to a bio-media filled reactor?

I'd expect using pure O2 would be very expensive to implement and I'm not sure of any benefit since it's not hard to fully saturate a tank w/O2 using a regular skimmer or air stone.

 

[Dan_P]

I'm still thinking about using a wet/dry filter, mainly for gas exchange. Would running pure O2 through the wet/dry be dangerous for the tank?

Would running pure O2 through the wet/dry work as well as outdoor air for removing CO2 from the water?

I read, and subsequently forgotten the post, that describes boosting oxygen in a saltwater aquarium to help a fish with gill damage. I believe an oxygen concentrator (Google this, I think it is a medical device for people) was used, not pure oxygen.

 

[HuduVudu]

I'm still thinking about using a wet/dry filter, mainly for gas exchange. Would running pure O2 through the wet/dry be dangerous for the tank?

Would running pure O2 through the wet/dry work as well as outdoor air for removing CO2 from the water?

Oxygen is 20% of the atmosphere:

Atmosphere of Earth - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It isn't really the factor when we talk about gas exchange in a salt water aquarium.

Carbon dioxide is the issue we deal with. It is independent of Oxygen. Carbon dioxide constitutes 0.04% of the atmosphere. It is incredible easy to move this concentration up and down because it is such a small percentage. Moving air from the outside will bring in presumably lower concentrations of CO2 and thus that would remove CO2 from the water.

Pure oxygen would have no effect other than to raise the concentrations of oxygen in the water. There could be a possible pH rise but I am not thinking that would be the case or that it would be significant.

 

[salty joe]

Pure oxygen would have no effect other than to raise the concentrations of oxygen in the water. There could be a possible pH rise but I am not thinking that would be the case or that it would be significant.

So using outside air that contains a tiny bit of CO2 would remove CO2 from water better than straight oxygen? It seems like using any gas with no CO2 in it would remove CO2 from water, but I don't know.
I did feel certain that oxygen would be added to the water but could you have so much oxygen that it's a problem?

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Look.up ozone.
U turn 02 into 03... something to do with orp but basically vaporizes molecules rather than binds them. Similar to uv.
D

 

[HuduVudu]

Look.up ozone.
U turn 02 into 03... something to do with orp but basically vaporizes molecules rather than binds them. Similar to uv.
D

Be very careful with O3 it can nuke things. The extra oxygen is a free radical and will oxidize things. Think bleach.

 

[HuduVudu]

So using outside air that contains a tiny bit of CO2 would remove CO2 from water better than straight oxygen?

It is the difference in how much CO2 is in the tank vs how much CO2 is in the air over the tank.
If the CO2 in the outside air produces less CO2 dissolution in water than the amount of CO2 that your tank produces then the CO2 will move out of the tank and into the air. The reverse is true. It is all about diffusion.

It seems like using any gas with no CO2 in it would remove CO2 from water, but I don't know.

You could try to seal the tank entirely from the air and then pump pure oxygen in. This would be very dangerous and I wouldn't recomend it because it is a serious explosion hazard. Once again diffusion is the key to understand how gases will behave.

I did feel certain that oxygen would be added to the water but could you have so much oxygen that it's a problem?

Not sure why you need so much O2 in water. If you think the O2 is going to displace the CO2 it won't it will just change the concentrations of all of the atmospheric gases in solution and since O2 is a huge percentage in the atmosphere and thus in solution moving enough oxygen would be nigh impossible especially considering that you would once again need to seal against the intrusion of outside atmospheric gas.

Why is it that you are contemplating this? What problem are you trying to solve?

 

[WVNed]

with pure oxygen you could catch your fish tank on fire
nasty stuff in some situations

 

[Screwgunner]

If you run it through your skimmer it seems it would raise o2 because you have removed the co2. Try it and see how much the ph goes up.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Yes my point exactly. Lol. Why i opt for uv and bio pellets and a protein skimmer. Lol.
My point is that yes you can and it's called o3.
D

 

[Screwgunner]

It would be the same as a co2 scrubber in my opinion. I opt for ats don't need the skimmer but there it is running away.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

^oh I have that too. Lol. And a fuge .
-d

 

[Screwgunner]

You betcha I will never run with out some kind of algea.

 

[Malcontent]

So using outside air that contains a tiny bit of CO2 would remove CO2 from water better than straight oxygen? It seems like using any gas with no CO2 in it would remove CO2 from water, but I don't know.

Yep, sparging.

However, if you were to use a common sparging gas, like nitrogen, it would deoxygenate the water and kill your fish.

Lots of fish farms aerate with pure-ish oxygen and, of course, fish are often bagged with oxygen.

 

[Shooter6]

The wet/dry filter design I'm familiar with won't do much oxygenating the water. Seems like you are thinking about adding in some sort of air-pump driven diffuser to a bio-media filled reactor?

I'd expect using pure O2 would be very expensive to implement and I'm not sure of any benefit since it's not hard to fully saturate a tank w/O2 using a regular skimmer or air stone.

May I ask how you came to this conclusion?
The old style wet/dry filters pushed water across a plate with filter pads, and holes In it, the water trickled through those holes, through plastic mesh balls then through the sump section with the skimmer, and finally to the return pumps.

All the splitting of water and air contact gives the water gas off and oxygen absorbing time. Probably works way better then any turbulence you have at the surface of the tank unless your wavemaker is actually blending oxygen into the tank causing bubbles in the display.

 

[Screwgunner]

Hallelujah ding ding ding we have a winner!!!

 

[Screwgunner]

Now take out the bio balls they are a nitrate factory. Put some rock in there.

 

[fryman]

May I ask how you came to this conclusion?
The old style wet/dry filters pushed water across a plate with filter pads, and holes In it, the water trickled through those holes, through plastic mesh balls then through the sump section with the skimmer, and finally to the return pumps.

All the splitting of water and air contact gives the water gas off and oxygen absorbing time. Probably works way better then any turbulence you have at the surface of the tank unless your wavemaker is actually blending oxygen into the tank causing bubbles in the display.

I suppose you have a point in comparison to surface agitation but my standard of reference for oxygenation is a protein skimmer, which most reefers have or even just an airstone which is cheap and easy to implement. Either will be much more effective at oxygenation than a wet/dry filter.

I guess my point is, if oxygenation is the goal, a wet/dry filter is not the tool I'd choose.

 

[Shooter6]

I suppose you have a point in comparison to surface agitation but my standard of reference for oxygenation is a protein skimmer, which most reefers have or even just an airstone which is cheap and easy to implement. Either will be much more effective at oxygenation than a wet/dry filter.

I guess my point is, if oxygenation is the goal, a wet/dry filter is not the tool I'd choose.

I tend to agree on this statement, as far as the ability of a properly sized skimmer, but I will say the ability of a wet/dry system to oxygenate the water is really high due to the amount of water surface contact between the water and air and the amount of agitation of the water as it flows through. Basically like rapids and waterfalls inside a box