Fish and Aqua Technology

How to measure oversaturation properly:
1.
A positiv reading of our Saturometer always indicates gas over saturation. Any over saturation is dangerous for fish if they are exposed to it for too long (in natural ponds gas pressure builds up during the day due to the algae assimilation process but this pressure normally is being reduced again overnight by the algae dissimilation process).

Oversaturation is dangerous - no matter which gas participates most to it:
An oxygen oversaturation may be partly adsorbed by the respiration process of the fish, but to high levels of oxygen can not be completley removed by respiration and will lead to gas bubbles as well (This is pure physics- not biology!)

2.
Any negative value on the display indicates undersaturation. Undersaturation is harmless concerning the gas bubble disease but as the undersaturation may come from a lack of oxygen, you should always monitor the oxygen level additionally to exclude a danger for your fish from this side.

3.
The gas bubble disease is very often present undetected and leads to significant damage in the fish stock. Malicious: The fish breeder treats symptoms of diseases which arise in consequence of the gas bubble disease. But the root cause is not being removed.

In experiments it was proven, that a continuous charge with only low levels of supersaturation has a significant negative impact on the fish immune system. A fishstock infected with IPN produced losses of 10-15% after 90 days whereas fish from the same stock epxosed to supersaturation showed a mortality rate of 65%. The gas bubbles themselves cause a lot of direct damages like lesions and embolies. Those alone are lethal in some cases. But in every case they open the door for secondary infections which can not be repelled by a weakened immune system.

A typical example is a trout breeder who reported fin rot and saprolegnia on the fish body. Our measures showed a gas pressure of 45 hPa which equaled to 105% gas saturation. It may not sound high but the breast fins were severely damaged by gas bubble lesions. The fin rot and the saprolegnia were clearly produced by an undetected gas oversaturation.

If fish are being exposed to oversaturation continuously, they will suffer from it no matter which gas contributed most to the supersaturation!

4.
In order to remove an oversaturation you may consider the following possible root causes of same:

• Pumps may leak and pull air (submerged pumps exclude that risk normally)
• Oxygen injection systems build up pressure when the oxygen is injected to deeply under the surface
• Well or spring water is used as main water source for your hatchery (many wells come up to the surface with an enormous oversaturation)
• Nitrogen oversaturation as your denitrification does not work (you may have to add a cascade to get rid of the Nitrogen after denitrification)
• Pipe systems which build up pressure as one wider supply pipe branches off into smaller diameter pipes before the water reaches the fish tank. This is one of the most common reasons for oversaturation
• etc.