airstone

[Little cherub]

I've been reading the forum over and over trying to find out what an air stone actually is but can't seem to find out. I thought i had one but then i read somewhere someone saying they will switch theres on so now i dnt think i have one. Can anyone give me a description of what one is and where i could get hold of a decent one. many thanks in advance.

 

[Vip]

All LFS have them, there a air rock witch you attach your air pump to, they make bubbles in the water, and add axygen to the water.
By all means all tanks should have them

 

[sunflower]

An airstone is a device that you can attach to your pump and it basically creates bubbles in your water. You can get long ones that create like a curtain of bubbles, ones that give you rings of bubbles or smaller ones that just give you bubbles in one spot.

You can use them on some ornaments to have bubbles coming out of holes etc.

The stones themselves are reasonably cheap however if you existing pump is not able to have a stone connected to it then you may have to get an external one to supplement it.

 

[ajhainey]

<edited to add>When I started typing this..no one else had answered! Doh </edit>

hehe - look back in my posting and you'll see my amazing confusion about the bits of an air system....

Anyway heres the fruits of my air system enquries: the 'airstone' is a piece of stone/fake stone/plastic which contains loads of tiny (often invisible) holes and is set up with an inlet valve (plastic thing you can stick an airline onto). The idea is to break a continous stream of air from a pump into loads of different bubbles. They come in loads of sizes and shapes, depending on the effect you want. You can also get 'bubble curtains' which are basically long thin versions of the same idea...Or you can get ornaments thats are basically fancy decorated versions of the same idea...ALL LFS will have a huge choice of airstones and they should be really cheap!

The other things you need are an air pump, a one way valve and some airline - connected in that order, with the airstone on the other end of the line to the pump. The pump sits outside the tank, the one way valve stops water getting up the line into the pump and the line carries the air from the pump into the tank to the airstone. Air pumps are electrically powered so whe someone talks about turning on their airstone, they really just mean turning on the pump that powers the airstone..

Make sense?

aj xx

 

[K-Holed]

Two Air stones

 

[Helium_Junkie]

they make bubbles in the water, and add oxygen to the water.

Not entirely accurate, the air bubbles create surface turbulence, effectively increasing the surface area. The bubbles dont add oxygen to the water

Air pumps are NOT necessary, for this very reason, but they do allow a few more fish to be kept in your tank

Don't forget... if you have lots of airstones/air powered decorations you will also need lots of tube splitters, a Y shaped device that takes the air from your pump and sends it in 2 directions. More than one can be chained to drive many devices. Pay attention to tube size, make sure the tubing you get will fit over your air pumps outlet

Good luck!

 

[Dubby]

Two Air stones

pics say more than words I like that !!

 

[Little cherub]

Well now i understand and i definetly dnt have an air stone although i will be going to buy one at lunch. I've still got a lot to learn about keeping fish but i'm glad i can come on here and ask everyone else for help. Thank you all so much you have all been a great help. maybe one day i can give you some advice. lol!

 

[Helium_Junkie]

Get an air curtain, much more interesting than an airstone

 

[Little cherub]

I think great minds must think alike i have just got back from the shop and that's exactly what i brought.

 

[Helium_Junkie]

I love em.

My air system consists of a air200 pump with a tube leading to a 4 way gang valve (lets you control individual airflows) then off of the valve comes one 6" airstone, one 18" air curtain (really fine bubbles, looks stunning) and one sandfall castle decoration (the sand falls like a waterfall... really great effect!).

I love it all, and my neons love swimming through the curtain

 

[Little cherub]

where exactly in the tank do you have your curtain one? i think i need to change my tank round it looks quite dull from point of view. So if you have that vavle thing does that mean i can have 2 pipes coming off the pump and 1pipe in each of my tanks or would i need 2 different pumps?

 

[Helium_Junkie]

valve splits one pumps output into lots of outputs to go wherever you like

In my tank i have 3 stones making a small cave and i have the curtain going around the back of it, in a semi circle. I have small grassy style plastic plants over the tube too, which makes a good effect.

 

[Little cherub]

I put mine in last nite i have two rocks kind of leaning on each other to make a sort of bridge and i have put it under there and when i switch it on, the bubbles come out all around the rocks into a circle shape it looks really cool, i'll have to try find one of those valve things so i can put one in my 7.5g
Are they expensive? i got paid today so i'm gonna go buy loads of stuff that i need this weekend hopefully i can find a valve. Thank you for all of your help

 

[K-Holed]

They cost about £2