What is wrong with my Rena Air 50?

[tropicalfish]

I have a Rena Air 50 pumping air into my 10 gallon hex on top of my short yet sturdy nightstand.
It is on a Marineland bubblewand 4". (these clog too easily!!)

Also, it is all on carpet, and so is the pump.
It seems to me that when I step on the pump and push down, more air bubbles seem to come out of the wand. How come?
Also, what is a good way to prevent the clogging? It doesn't clog all the way, just enough to dramatically drop air flow..
My quick fix is to hook the airline to a syringe, and pump really really fast, so massive "cloud bubbles" come out, and I do this for about a minute.

 

[dskidmore]

Clogging is part of nature. Algae and small dirt get in there and get stuck. The finer the pore, the smaller the bubble, the more easily it cloggs. One company makes ceramic stones that can be cleaned with an acid soak, but I won't risk that with your bubblewand.

Snails will slow clogging by eating the stuff on the wand, but some particles come from the airline and get stuck deep within the stone.

How old is the pump?
You could try replacing the diaphram or air filter in the pump. The air filter reduces the crud in the air line, reducing the crud trapped in the air stone. The diaphram affects pump efficiency.

More parts answers, by the pros:
http://www.planetrena.com/Aquarium-Air-Pump-FAQ.html

You may consider just upgrading the pump. Bubble walls use more air than air stones, and the smallest pumps are not really designed to drive them. I don't see any specs for this on Marineland's website, and I don't recall any documentation coming with mine, but there's a basic fact that the more bubbles, the more force it takes to generate them. (Granted, my bubble wall is 48" long, so I've seen the more extreme version of your problem.)

 

[tropicalfish]

I have a really old Whisper 10 air pump (the gray box ones)
and I tried it just last night, and a huge bunch of bubbles came out. I think the Rena airpump is not worth the money. Also, that old Whisper 10 was actually quieter!!