Protist aquarium- how long should I run air pump

[zzffnn]

So I started a 3.5 gallon protist aquarium today, with aquarium heater, air pump (bubbler), LED light and pond water sample and some aquatic plants / pond soil.

For those of you who have set up protist aquarium and determined the best condition for protists diversity, what settings do you use?

Specifically, do you run your air pump continuously without stopping (is continuous air bubbles better than run / pause cycles for protists diversity)? If you do a pause, is a pause of X hours per day a good idea?

I plan to turn off LED light for 8-10 hours per day to simulate natural environment.

I am not sure about this, though I would probably set my tank to 72 -78 fahrenheit (or 22-26 celsius), which is about our local temperature for autumn / winter.

I am really not sure about how long I should run the air pump and I have no way to monitor / know optimum oxygen level.

If I have to choose, I guess I would choose to optimize for ciliate diversity, which I guess do not need a lot of oxygen (too much may even be bad for some ciliates, though maybe those ciliates that prefer less oxygen may hide at the other side of the tank bottom away from bubbler)?

Please kindly correct me, if you think you know a better setting.

[Free2Fish]

I’m at the same stage you are; just beginning to experiment.
I’ve got a fishbowl with about 1 gal of river water, river sediment and dead leaves sitting in a window ledge. It’s doing well after about 3 weeks with a good population of daphnia, cyclops and some protists. There are ciliates and rotifers but I’ve found nothing else, haven’t really had the time to look.
I’ve also got a 1 gallon, enclosed jar with plants that I’ve seeded with daphnia and cyclops. No heater, filter or bubbler of any kind, just trying to set up a self sustaining ecosystem. I use rotting leaves as a food supply and so far the critters seem happy.
My last is a heated, filtered (very lightly) 3 gallon tank that will hopefully become a protist tank soon. Right now I still have one fish in it, a sole survivor from a larger tank that I’m tearing down and cleaning.
I guess I’m saying, with my limited experience, that I’m using plants to deliver oxygen rather than mechanical means and it seems to be working so far.
Harry

[zzffnn]

Thank you for sharing your experience, Harry.

I forgot to mention that I have no filter running, on purpose.

Since I started the aquarium today, I am not certain my aquatic plants will survive. So I thought air pump may help.

My bubbler / air pump looks a little too powerful for my 3.5 gallon tank, to my untrained eyes, even though it is the smallest air pump (“up to 10 gallons”) I could find.

[macnmotion]

Thank you for sharing your experience, Harry.

I forgot to mention that I have no filter running, on purpose.

My bubbler / air pump looks a little too powerful for my 3.5 gallon tank, to my untrained eyes, even though it is the smallest air pump (“up to 10 gallons”) I could find.

You can get a cheap regulator valve to add to your airline which can restrict the amount of air. For example this:

Fluval A1175 Air Plastic Control Valve https://a.co/d/91AQxWT

[zzffnn]

You can get a cheap regulator valve to add to your airline which can restrict the amount of air. For example this:

Fluval A1175 Air Plastic Control Valve https://a.co/d/91AQxWT

One came with my air pump actually. I just forgot to use it

[Free2Fish]

The filter that came with my 3 gal tank does very little, the reviews all complain about how little water goes through it. Perfect!
If I were you I’d try the tank without aeration to see how things develop. Is there a reason that you feel that aeration is required?
Harry

[zzffnn]

The filter that came with my 3 gal tank does very little, the reviews all complain about how little water goes through it. Perfect!
If I were you I’d try the tank without aeration to see how things develop. Is there a reason that you feel that aeration is required?
Harry

Hi Harry: it is just my gut instinct. I had quite a few pond cultures before without air bubbles and had everything else (good food source, light and temperature); eventually they all turned to black goo and diversity disappeared within less than 3 months.

macnmotion replied me on Facebook and he has had his tank running with air pump for 7 months, so I am guessing air pump does help.

[Free2Fish]

I’ve been doing a lot of reading about this and I guess the key is balance, however that can be attained. The other thing is that these little ecosystems tend to crash periodically so it seems best to keep at least two going.
Right now my mud and dead leaf bowl is just exploding with life and I’m getting a little nervous about how that can continue.
Harry

[charlie g]

Hi, Fan,..first off..'think native/ natural assemblages from your Texas outdoors. Thus..please, please, no water-heater!'. A water heater is akin to a bacterial incubator..strive for for natural/native freshwater assemblages.

Second...think ten (10) to fifteen (15) gallon tank...this permits a tray above the aquarium water level...simple 'tupper ware/ plastic tray' ...wire-hung above 2/3rds the aquarium waters.

Place a simple 'buble box filter' in aquarium below the above water tray...have the 'lift tube of air and water froth ' lead up to the above water tray...walla..you are now circulating tank waters to the tray compartment...and then back to the aquarium waters.

With a hot nail ( kitchen stove burner heated nail, held by pliers) melt/punch drainage holes in the end of above water compartment tray...punch all the end wall of the above tray with drainage holes...have the 'bubble tube water/air froth water this tray compartment from the other side of the tray. Lay a flat outdoor collected stone over the froth-tube exit so droplets do not splash about your setup bench.

With this simple setup you now establish aquarium fish below..and a microcosm wetland above. Ideally you dip-net use native minnows for the aquarium area..but simple gold fish/ gold 'feeder fish' excelent to start the ecosystem...latter add native fish. Think natural/native Texas waters..ideally collect native snails, native plants, native fish.

The above compartment should host crisp scoops of area pond border moss/plant assemblages. Over time..on 'microscopy collection hikes'..collect moss covered small stones..anything which enhances your wet land above the aquarium. The aquarium may have a screen to permit half this waters to be free of fish ( but the fish are essential to this microcosim).

The only things which sometimes crawl out of the aquarium ( to their demise) are crayfish..so a simple screen cover if you enjoy native 'craw dads' in your setup.

I am urging you, Fan, to thinks 'balanced/ native microcosm'...no...no place for a water-heater.

Yes, yes...to an eight hour light cycle ( I indoors do mine at dark until we wake the next day)...keep your setup away from direct sunlight exposure...away from home heat source...please..please..not water heater!

[charlie g]

Hi, Fan,..first off..'think native/ natural assemblages from your Texas outdoors. Thus..please, please, no water-heater!'. A water heater is akin to a bacterial incubator..strive for for natural/native freshwater assemblages.

Second...think ten (10) to fifteen (15) gallon tank...this permits a tray above the aquarium water level...simple 'tupper ware/ plastic tray' ...wire-hung above 2/3rds the aquarium waters.

Place a simple 'buble box filter' in aquarium below the above water tray...have the 'lift tube of air and water froth ' lead up to the above water tray...walla..you are now circulating tank waters to the tray compartment...and then back to the aquarium waters.

With a hot nail ( kitchen stove burner heated nail, held by pliers) melt/punch drainage holes in the end of above water compartment tray...punch all the end wall of the above tray with drainage holes...have the 'bubble tube water/air froth water this tray compartment from the other side of the tray. Lay a flat outdoor collected stone over the froth-tube exit so droplets do not splash about your setup bench.

With this simple setup you now establish aquarium fish below..and a microcosm wetland above. Ideally you dip-net use native minnows for the aquarium area..but simple gold fish/ gold 'feeder fish' excelent to start the ecosystem...latter add native fish. Think natural/native Texas waters..ideally collect native snails, native plants, native fish.

The above compartment should host crisp scoops of area pond border moss/plant assemblages. Over time..on 'microscopy collection hikes'..collect moss covered small stones..anything which enhances your wet land above the aquarium. The aquarium may have a screen to permit half this waters to be free of fish ( but the fish are essential to this microcosim).

The only things which sometimes crawl out of the aquarium ( to their demise) are crayfish..so a simple screen cover if you enjoy native 'craw dads' in your setup.

I am urging you, Fan, to thinks 'balanced/ native microcosm'...no...no place for a water-heater.

Yes, yes...to an eight hour light cycle ( I indoors do mine at dark until we wake the next day)...keep your setup away from direct sunlight exposure...away from home heat source...please..please..not water heater!

[zzffnn]

Thank you, Charlie.

Have you compared microscopic biodiversity with heater vs. without heater?

Where I live can actually get pretty cool, even inside our home in winter (our family don’t like running high heat). I do not want completely natural (our outdoor nature dies down when air temperature drops below 40F or so in winter); I just want (better-than-nature) biodiversity.

I agree that too high a temperature is not good (I do have a microbiology PhD to understand your reasoning). However, I also think that our room temperature in winter time is not high enough for good microscopic biodiversity. I want just enough bacteria to feed protists: not too much, not too little.

I apologize, however I respectfully disagree on having fish or snails in my protist aquarium. They would destroy some plants and protists, which I do not want.

I would like the top predators in my aquarium to be almost invisible to naked eyes (and more visible through microscopes), if that makes sense. Again, I aim to create more microscopic biodiversity, rather than faithfully preserving nature; I do not want to maintain fish or snails in this current tank (even though I had them before).

I actually have two Facebook comments suggesting against having snails or fish in protist aquarium (I did not say I want fish or snails, though they voluntarily mentioned that having those may negatively affect microscopic biodiversity).

[charlie g]

Hi again, Fan and forum. First off I apologize for not understanding how to delete one of my exactly the same 'double posts'..how to delete one? I need advice to do this deletion.

Yes, yes, Fan..you ask about 'biodiversity of your desired protists' , you ask which more 'biodiverse'..a water heated tank vrs ambient regional thermal regime..of your locale.

Biodiversity of protists/meiofauna/ megafauna ( fish/ crusteaceans/flatworms/snails/aquatic plants/ aquatic insects are megafauna/flora) biodiversity is totally nested in their interactions. A cloud of ciliates 'fouls the waters/ smells bad to us megafauna.'.you can achieve this 'brew'..but no way will the microcosm be as biodiverse as a 'more natural balanced microcosm'.

The most diverse number of: 'micro habitats' a balanced microcosm contains...is the foundation for most biodiverse microcosm You can not have as large a number of protist assemblages in a water-heated, niche poor/microhabitat poor ...3.5 gallon tank.

We as microscopists, with our understanding of the variety of niches/ microhabitats contained in a jar, or dish, or tank microcosm...we can sample very specific microhabitats with a trusty/ low cost borosilicate glass pastuer-pipet...a joy to capture on a simple wetmount slide so many different protists...when we sample different microhabitats in our jar/ tank microcosm...no need for a water-heater..you are acting on an 'isolation of protists in an agar, or a potatoe slice , a very western tradition of agar slant/agar petri dish pure..or enriched cultures...when I was a teen, it was termed: "autecology" vrs: "synecology"


" The mixed culture method was developed in the 1880's by Russian microbiologist Sergei Winogradsky, who cultivated samples from the environment under controlled conditions

in order to understand ' the big picture'."...pg 304, " A Field Guide to Bacteria", 2003, Dr. Betsey Dexter Dyer...low cost, terrific book for microscopists!



We have learned so much about the ' microbe/protist loop' as large part of ecosystems...sewage water treatment protists are a very unique and crucial ecology for our wellbeing, but this a very specific assemblage...not hosting so many other freshwater communities...I suppose your microscopy of a heated 3-4 gallon tank offers excellent protist microscopy...but the more niches/microhabitats a microcosm supports..the more protist biodiversity. And as many collect an attractive vial of beach sand from many far from home vacations at the beach..with a wet land above a ten gallon aquarium ( 10 gallon tank a very modest footprint indoors at your bench..or outdoors at a picnic-table) you may enjoy adding small samples collected on holiday to your setup!

Please tease out the variety of protists microcosms...please consider a setup with: wet-land above an aquatic water with fish and snails.

I tried to download some of my "Microbehunter Magazine articles"..but alas it seems now in 12/23..you may only purchase them..they refuse to dowmload for me.

Microbehunter Magazine ( issue #48) June 2015, " Out door microcosms in winter/ Microcosms allow you to do microscopy even during cold winter months"