Marine Airstone

[Squidward]

Hi All,

When I was in Spain a few months ago, I went to a restaurant where there was a coldwater marine tank.
In the tank was this wooden airstone giving off these very fine mist like bubbles. Thought it looked fantastic. I asked the manager of the restaurant where he got the airstone from and told me it was the owner who dealt with the tank.

Forgot about it completely. But when I was at my lfs last week, I suddenly remembered about the wood airstone. And yes they had one. Apparently they are used in marine tanks as the fine bubbles assist the protein skimmer.
So I bought 2. Put them in my tank. And normal sized bubbles
Played around with the air rate flow, but nothing seems to make a difference.

Has anyone got one of these in their tanks?
And if so, how do I get the fine bubble affect?

Thanks

 

[seffieuk]

I have never heard of someone putting a wooden airstone in a marine tank, to be honest any airstone would be unusual, so sorry cant help

Seffie x

 

[Donya]

Never had wooden ones unfortunately, I just use the regular ones since I haven't ever had a skimmer that required a wooden one. However, I have read that the wooden ones require quite a bit of pressure to do what they need to do in skimmers, so maybe the air pump is not strong enough? Sort of like how turning down the pressure with regular airstones can sometimes result in just a few larger bubbles vs. a bit smaller on average bubbles being produced more uniformly when the pressure is all the way up.

 

[Squidward]

I went to another lfs yesterday and asked about the wood airstones.
The chap there told me that they need the salt to work properly. Otherwise they will just produce normal bubbles which is what I have found.

Now I have to go back to the other shop and try and get my money back
Or I may leave it. It was only £1.50 anyway.

Actually, thinking about it.
If there is a UK member that wants to have a go with it in their marine tank, as an experiment, send me a pm and I will post it to you. FOC.

 

[seffieuk]

Actually, thinking about it.
If there is a UK member that wants to have a go with it in their marine tank, as an experiment, send me a pm and I will post it to you. FOC.

thanks for the offer - might be cool to see how it looks, anyone fancy giving it a try?

 

[StandbySetting]

The only problem I can see is the formation of carbonic acids reducing the PH in the tank, other than that I can't really think of a purpose for them other than using them in skimmers.

 

[seffieuk]

The only problem I can see is the formation of carbonic acids reducing the PH in the tank,

EEEkkk, so not such a good idea!

 

[Donya]

The only problem I can see is the formation of carbonic acids reducing the PH in the tank

Perhaps I'm missing something as I am rather tired right now, but if this was going to be a problem then it should be a problem for skimmers too, which circulate water from the tank through them and aid in gas exchange. As far as other chemistry is concerned, it shouldn't matter where the airstone is, tank/air interface vs. chamber of thing connected to tank/air interface, it just won't have the benefit of helping filter out goop if it's not inside the skimmer. If the room is somehow building up CO2 above normal levels, the usual culprit I'm used to hearing about for gas exchange-based pH dips, then it's a different issue and would still be a problem as long as reasonable gas exchange is still going on (with or without bubblers).

 

[StandbySetting]

It shouldn't pose much of a problem anyway due to the high Carbonate Hardness of the water, from experience, wooden air stones do a better job at dissolving gas than skimmers do, because of the higher contact time with the water, it shouldn't make much of a difference but I still see no real need for these air stones.

 

[Donya]

I still see no real need for these air stones.

Oh come now, since when does need have much to do with what we stuff into our tanks? OP was talking about one for aesthetic purposes, which should be just fine as long as there is no bubble-averse livestock involved.

wooden air stones do a better job at dissolving gas than skimmers do

Comparing between in-tank airstone and in-skimmer airstones or some other type of skimmer?

 

[StandbySetting]

I guess it depends on how the skimmer works, out of the two I've owned, the bubbles have been created via venturi system pulling air into the impeller, there was no form of air stone in them, I've not used others so can't comment on them, but marine air stones work in a similar way to how atomic diffusers work for injecting CO2 into a tank, I can imagine that it will have some form of affect on the PH, but not by a significant amount for it to cause issues.

 

[woody88]

Don't waste your money buying an airstone.
Just get an air pump, some tubing. Block up the end of the tube and pierce loads of tiny holes in the tubing with a needle or pin head.

I had one in my trop tank and the bubbles are micro sized an lots of them too. In the end I removed it as the bubbles were floating around the tank which done my head in the end.