Air stones

[brownjw1971]

Hi everyone, new to forum, but not aquariums. I've been running a55 gallon with about 15 smaller fish. I have a tetra whisper 20-30 pump running about a 2" stone inside a house deco with bubbles coming out of chimney like smoke. I just bought 2 14" stones connected together to give a bubble wall. My question is what size pump should I use for those air stones? I put a tetra whisper 60 gallon pump to them, but that won't even push enough to make bubbles even on one 14"stone.

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[Ch4rlie]

Some pumps have a adjustable valve but not many.
Also the strength of some pumps are just not strong at all, just enough to get air through a single small airstone or maybe two small airstones.

First thing to do is to check if you have any leaks coming out at any joins, some washing up liquid in a small amount of water and brush that fluid over the joins and if bubble come up when the pump is switched on then theres a source of air leak.
Remember to rinse off the water and washng up liquid off the join very well befoe adding to tank.

Second, if this is an old pump then seals may need replacing with a repair kits but these can be pricey with shipping, often is cheaper just to buy a new pump altogether.

Third, to join the two airstone together, are the airline comining out of two air pipes from pump itself? or are the two airlines joined together?
Sometimes getting a two way valve like this can help control the amount of air going to each airstone -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Air-Pump-...hash=item4881a8a32d:m:mSr0hgn3ELgHmukgEuoFLnQ

The above is just an example to give you the idea, there are plastic and cheaper ones as well.

 

[brownjw1971]

It is new pump and new air stones. Soaked stones in tank for about 1hr before turning pump on. I have both outlets teed into 1 line to stones

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[Demeter32]

For some of my pumps they have a hard time pushing air through the tubing the deeper the stone is in the water. The pressure prevents it from bubbling but when I move the stone to about 4 inches below the surface it will bubble just fine.

See if moving the air stones closer to the surface makes them bubble, if so then I would say your pumps are too week, or as Ch4rlie said there is a defect or leak.

 

[concentration]

Pump effectiveness usually goes down as time pass by , there are few model that can let you buy replacement parts and cleaning will help , but overall the effectiveness of it will still not as strong as new . I should suggest to get a strong adjustable pump with buffer(that's you only need to turn on 70% of the full strength) with the values like suggested with the previous post . The reason is that sometime when you are connected multiple air rock , depending on the length of deepest , sometime you may notice not all of them will get the air evenly, with the values which let you adjust the air going through on each hold , you can make all rock has air coming our evenly. Also please make sure water is not flowing back to the pump, if that may happen , you can buy a air lock for it

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