How to Make a Fish Oxidizer

Making a fish oxidizer allows you to help pump more oxygen into your aquarium. This is very useful for fish that are gasping at the surface or for overstocked aquariums that simply do not have enough oxygen occurring naturally in the nitrogen cycle to allow the fish in the tank to coexist well. Oxidizers can be turned on and off at need, but if they are being used in an overstocked aquarium, it would be best to use them as a temporary solution.

Things You'll Need

  • Aquarium air pump
  • Aquarium-safe air line tubing
  • Bubble wand or air stone
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Instructions

    • 1

      Mount the air pump on the aquarium or near it. Turn off the filter on the aquarium and unplug any lights.

    • 2

      Fit one part of the air line tubing onto the air pump. This may require quite a lot of wiggling since most air pumps have very large vent shafts compared to typical air line tubing.

    • 3

      Attach the unused end of the air line tubing to the air stone or bubble wand. Bury the air stone or bubble wand in the aquarium substrate enough to keep the air stone or bubble wand from floating to the surface.

    • 4

      Plug in the air pump. The oxidizer will start automatically. Plug in the aquarium filter, light and any other electrical accessories.