Fishfur
Aquarium Advice Addict
A power head won't be much help in terms of getting the gas to dissolve. You need very tiny bubbles.. like mist. The smaller they are, the longer they take to rise to the surface, which helps them dissolve.
One method I've seen mentioned is to use the end of a disposable chopstick in the end of the air line. It's relatively porous and bubbles will get through, and they're fine enough so that you get fairly decent diffusion before they hit the surface. But when larger bubbles are hitting the surface in just second or two, an awful lot of the gas is being lost to the air.
'In line' diffusion is supposed to work the best and so far as I know, it can be done with any canister type filter. I'd have to look it up to see how it's done, I've never had a canister filter so I've not tried it, but I've seen many posts on how well it works.
Injecting the gas into the venturi valve on a pump or power head so it gets broken up by the impeller helps a little bit, but not that much. It also tends to wear out the impeller much sooner than it should, and depending on the filter, that can be a cost to consider.
You can also get wooden air stones, which are old fashioned but are still available. Red Sea makes one. They work something like the chopstick does. Balsa wood, or similar, can be used to try to make your own version of the chopstick or air stone. I have two wood air stones I plan to try out, but it may be awhile before I get a chance to do that. So many repairs that have to be done before I can put my tanks back up. I only have my small ones for now, all crammed into my bedroom.
One method I've seen mentioned is to use the end of a disposable chopstick in the end of the air line. It's relatively porous and bubbles will get through, and they're fine enough so that you get fairly decent diffusion before they hit the surface. But when larger bubbles are hitting the surface in just second or two, an awful lot of the gas is being lost to the air.
'In line' diffusion is supposed to work the best and so far as I know, it can be done with any canister type filter. I'd have to look it up to see how it's done, I've never had a canister filter so I've not tried it, but I've seen many posts on how well it works.
Injecting the gas into the venturi valve on a pump or power head so it gets broken up by the impeller helps a little bit, but not that much. It also tends to wear out the impeller much sooner than it should, and depending on the filter, that can be a cost to consider.
You can also get wooden air stones, which are old fashioned but are still available. Red Sea makes one. They work something like the chopstick does. Balsa wood, or similar, can be used to try to make your own version of the chopstick or air stone. I have two wood air stones I plan to try out, but it may be awhile before I get a chance to do that. So many repairs that have to be done before I can put my tanks back up. I only have my small ones for now, all crammed into my bedroom.
