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RES

They absorb oxygen when hibernating under water. An air pump will help oxygenate the water and break up the surface.

steve wrote:They absorb oxygen when hibernating under water. An air pump will help oxygenate the water and break up the surface.

wow that's really cool, thanks for the info.

Actually air pumps don't oxygenate water. It is true however that they help in the gas exchange process from water to air in the atmosphere. What that means is some of the gas in the air get in the water but you also lose some, especially CO2, which is essential to plants. Which is negative since plants really and actually oxygenate water during photosyntesis.

Marcus.85 wrote:Actually air pumps don't oxygenate water. It is true however that they help in the gas exchange process from water to air in the atmosphere. What that means is some of the gas in the air get in the water but you also lose some, especially CO2, which is essential to plants. Which is negative since plants really and actually oxygenate water during photosyntesis.

I have plants in my tank as well. Should I take the air pump out if it's stealing the plant's CO2? or is it the other way around? sorry, I'm a bit confused.

TenCrackersExit wrote:
I have plants in my tank as well. Should I take the air pump out if it's stealing the plant's CO2? or is it the other way around? sorry, I'm a bit confused.

No, don't worry, it's not that big of a deal, it's only small amounts of oxygen (and other gases) taken in the water and CO2 lost in the atmosphere.
But yeah, a lot of experts say that air pumps don't actually help significantly. What I meant with my the CO2 ramble is that, for example, an air pump would even out the (positive) effects for the plant of a Co2 injector in the tank. But otherwise, if you have common resilient plants it doesn't matter.
Can I ask you something? How do you manage to have plants in the tank with RES?

Marcus.85 wrote:

TenCrackersExit wrote:
I have plants in my tank as well. Should I take the air pump out if it's stealing the plant's CO2? or is it the other way around? sorry, I'm a bit confused.

No, don't worry, it's not that big of a deal, it's only small amounts of oxygen (and other gases) taken in the water and CO2 lost in the atmosphere.
But yeah, a lot of experts say that air pumps don't actually help significantly. What I meant with my the CO2 ramble is that, for example, an air pump would even out the (positive) effects for the plant of a Co2 injector in the tank. But otherwise, if you have common resilient plants it doesn't matter.
Can I ask you something? How do you manage to have plants in the tank with RES?

Thanks for clearing up the Co2 thing for me.
Before I answer your question; Do you mean how do I keep my plants healthy or do you mean how do I keep my RES from ruining all the plant scenery?
Well anyways:
I'm able to have water hyacinth in my outdoors tank because if my turtles shred them to pieces, I just go down to the river I live next to and grab some more water hyacinth every week or so.

You already answered the question. They're destroyed just like in everyone else's tank.. I think the only viable method is to make a glass separator with drilled holes in it so that turtles can't phisically reach the plants. I'm having very high nitrates in my tank, even if I have some real (non aquatic) plants with their roots underwater suckin up NO3s. It's unhealthy, especially for the fish, but not that harmless for turtles also.