pure oxygen

[CiXeL]

What would happen if you super saturated your tank water with pure oxygen from an oxygen tank? Would it make the corals super productive the same way it makes all animal cells super productive by getting oxygen to those hard to reach areas?

 

[Anonymous]

Oxygen is usually not the "bottleneck" of growth of coral unless you have a really bad skimmer and poor circulation/air exchange.

The air has much more oxygen concentration than the seawater, and you can do the same job with bubbling air thru the water (such as in skimmer rxt chamber).

It is a waste of money if you use a O2 tank.

 

[CiXeL]

every % counts. has anyone tried this? it works with every other animal cell. i would not be suprised in the slightest if this was an undiscovered route of extreme coral growth. they are already seeing coral growth slow around the world due to overabundance of co2 in the atmosphere.

 

[tazdevil]

I'd be more concerned with the potential additional fire hazard that pure oxygenation can present. A fire in normal air is much more controllable than one in an oxygen rich environment. The reduced coral growth is not only linked to CO2 increasing, there's too many other factors involved as well (waterpollution, other types of air pollution etc.).

 

[CiXeL]

I'm just wondering if its not something that could be used in a frag grow out tank or coral growth farm since the cells would be functioning better therefore faster calcification and thus growth. I'd be more concerned about all the water-electrical exposure and faulty seals in our tanks than explosive oxygen. Your house is more likely to burn down from electrical fire than a tank of oxygen exploding. Theres regulators on tanks to prevent that sort of thing.

 

[tazdevil]

You didn't understand that correctly. Not the O2 tank, but the room. If you applied a pure O2 source to the reeftank, Pure O2 will also be in the room (the amount that does not dissolve in the reeftank). This is the fire hazard I was referring to, as I work with oxygen tanks on an almost daily basis. If you want to take the risk- go ahead, I just don't believe that the outcome your looking for will happen, that you'll see "explosive growth" of the corals.

 

[CiXeL]

i guess youd need an airtight tank and monitering all the incoming and outgoing gasses?

 

[Money Pit]

I would have to guess that injecting O2 would have an effect on your PH levels. So you would have to inject very small amounts to keep your PH from going over 8.6.
If a fire starts you're screwed with or without the small increase of O2 that this application would create.

 

[CiXeL]

i imagine this could be done though the question is how.

 

[Anonymous]

>...they are already seeing coral growth slow around the world due to overabundance of co2 in the atmosphere....

The reef is a complex system, and it is almost always wrong when you read a simple "A cause B" reasoning. If you do more reading, you will find the interaction between CO2 in the air and it multipath effect on coral growth. All in all, you will found a bunch of very bright people, but none of them agree with anybody else.

You may find that some say that the green house gas increase the acidity of seawater, cause a higher concentration of calcium than before. This, in conjunction with higher metabolism rate due to higher temperature, cause faster coral growth.

As mentioned above, you can accomplish the same effect by using air stone and air pump (watch for nasty salt creep...) because the solubility of oxygen in seawater is much lower than the concentration of O2 in the air. Why would anyone want to use pure O2 is out of my comprehension, even if all the risk was addressed.

It is like using solid nitrogen pellet to cool your fish tank. It works, but why?

 

[CiXeL]

because i would not be surprised at all if the oxygen levels we find in our tanks are quite a bit less than found in nature. how many of you have crashing waves in your tanks?

 

[tazdevil]

Skimmers raise the O2 levels in tanks very well, and they're always on (although some turn them off for feeding). Check the ORP levels on a tank with a skimmer on it, IRCC they're very high. This can be easily proven by checking with skimmer on, then with skimmer off. Again, though, if you're really thinking it may make a difference, go ahead and hook up an O2 tank to a bubbler (probably want to use an airstone to get the smallest bubbles possible) and watch for a few months to see if there's any difference. As stated before, watch your Ph levels closely.

 

[Tackett]

I would have to guess that injecting O2 would have an effect on your PH levels. So you would have to inject very small amounts to keep your PH from going over 8.6.

The man is correct, with the higher concentration of oxygen and lower concentration of CO2, the PH will raise, you would have to keep an eyeball on it. (or both)

 

[Apophis924]

O2 is highly reactive and by nature toxic evne to animals that are areobic, introducing pure O2 into the watere column would result in super stauration and micro bubbles. You would also "oxidize/burn" most of your micor fauna and do seiours damage to your corals, there are theories that attribute bleachuing to a high influx of O2. when lighting is increased algea in the corals prosuce more O@ and this O2 has belaching effect if it cannot be removed or matobolized quickly enough. and as previously stated ones pH would begin to run high, leading to precipitation of critical trace elements and compounds.

 

[Anonymous]

Set up a tent over the tank and breath in that wonderful, coral fragrence laden O2 baby.