Air stone

[ecancienne1983]

Is there anypissible way that an airstone in an saltwater tank good for the tank and is there a way one can be used if so not worrying about salt creep?? Or is that to big of a factor id like to maybee put some live rock around one some how and break some of the bubbles up so theres not so many and still get the cool look or is this honestly a bad idea all together?

 

[tomtom14]

I've seen it done before. However if any air gets trapped underneath the live rock it will kill the bit of live rock it is touching. So if you where going to have one I would put it no where near the live rock.

 

[mr_X]

Bad idea all together. It's going to fling little tiny water drops all over the place and any walls or things near the tank will end up getting ruined.

 

[jeffaquarius]

I have seen reef tanks using air stones. A tv series TANK have shown one of their projects with bubbles on a separate enclosure where water circulates. As long as you can contain those popping bubbles in the water, I would say it's really not that bad. Just like your skimmer they create micro bubbles but they are contained within the unit.

 

[Sniperhank]

Air stones are used to bring more oxygen into the tank, putting rock and other such over it to prevent the bubbles from breaking the surface kinda negates the purpose... This is why we use powerheads in SW, for the same purpose and to remove the salt creep ruining everything around the tank.

 

[ecancienne1983]

Well i was gonna put my live rock around the air stone and leave an opening at the top and let the bubbles float up sort of like a volcano look it would just hide the stone better i thought

 

[jeffaquarius]

As long as the bubbles has enough clearance around it and not hitting anything when if pops IMO it should not be a problem

 

[ecancienne1983]

Ok also i heard airstones mess with the salinity lvls bc of the salt creep true or false

 

[Sniperhank]

True, salt creep can lower salinity.

 

[mr_X]

You'll see, it's not a good idea. Keep an eye on the surroundings even a foot away from the bubbles.
If you are referring to the TV series "Tanked", those people are clearly idiots. They do everything wrong and kill fish on a regular basis. Not good role models IMO...lol.

 

[Mebbid]

Actually, I've seen a few really good diy filters where an air bubbler would work great for a saltwater tank. The one that pops out the most is a fluidized bed filter design I saw here on the forum. I would just switch out the fluidized media with refugium rubble and call it a day. I'm going to keep one running for qt purposes.

The media is enclosed within a bottle with holes drilled on the sides to keep the media in. 0 salt creep and highly oxygenated water for the tank.