air stones

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redlum777

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Feb 3, 2010
Messages
11
how often do you change air stones? i've got the longer 4-6" ones. just curious!

thanks! :)
 
Also, airstones that are buried underneath the substrate tend to last quite a bit longer than those that are left open to the water column. The only downside is that the deeper you bury the airstone - the bigger the bubbles will be when they come up (moreso with gravel than sand).

Then again - bigger bubbles = greater surface disruption = better diffusion.
 
The bubbles themselves will aerate and add oxygen. Smaller bubbles have more surface area and do this better, but larger bubbles create more flow. I usually change out air stones either when they break or when they are so worn that they are only putting out big bubbles from a few holes (as opposed to small bubbles from many holes).
 
Why would bubble size matter? The stone will pump out the same amount of air regardless of which size the bubbles end up by the time they surface.
 
I had an airstone in a ten gallon and it rarely ever got clogged. If it did, I'd just replace it instead of cleaning. They are pretty cheap.
 
Smaller bubbles have a lot more surface area per volume of air so you get more oxygen exchange by the time the bubbles hit the surface. Larger bubbles move more water though, so you are not going wrong either way.
 
Not exactly. Oxygen will diffuse at any air-water surface. It does not know or care whether it is in a bubble or at the surface of a tank. Small bubbles have MANY times more surface area and therfore a lot more surface for oxygen to diffuse across.
 
Not exactly. Oxygen will diffuse at any air-water surface. It does not know or care whether it is in a bubble or at the surface of a tank. Small bubbles have MANY times more surface area and therfore a lot more surface for oxygen to diffuse across.

While that's true the difference in surface area between small bubbles and large bubbles will be insignificant when compared to the water surface.
 
I don't think so. The surface area of large bubbles will add up to a lot, and small bubbles will have many times as much surface area. Even if there is more surface area at the top of the tank the bubbles are passing through the water column very quickly, creating a lot more interaction between bubbles and water that can be oxygenated.

In my opinion the interaction between bubbles and the water column create more oxygenation than the flow of water across the surface of the tank created by the bubbles.
 
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