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Re: Fancy Airstones
> Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 21:48:06 -0800
> From: Ed Dumas <a4a48835 at telus_net>
> Subject: "Fancy Airstones"
>
> Dave, I have another question for you. Recently you said:
>
> >"Ed, you have overlooked a third kind: fancy airstones. They are made
> >by
> >ADA, Dupla, Point Four (very large ones for huge tanks), Sera (I think)
> >and
> >Eheim.
>
> I went to the Dupla site and the Eheim site to see what these "Fancy
> Airstones" would look like. All I found was a diffuser on the Eheim site
> which used the spray from a pump outlet and injected gas (air or CO2)
> into the water stream. There was a similar item on the Dupla site. I
> then remembered that I have one of these in the deep dark recesses of
> some aquarium drawer someplace! Is this the item that you were talking
> about, or do you really mean an airstone which does not use water as a
> propellent. How do you think an Eheim diffuser would work for a 100
> gallon tank?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ed
I'll guess that Dave was referring to are the "diffuser" type such as the
Eheim he sells...ceramic/sintered glass discs at the top of a glass or
plastic ( in the case of the Eheim) chamber that get the CO2 forced through
them under pressure. I tried many many types and brands of airstones and
found the only ones suitable to properly atomize the CO2 for absorption are
the wood ones.
I used a wooden "airstone" for CO2 diffusion for quite a while and found
them cheap, easy to maintain and produced a very fine "mist" of bubbles. I
used the "Coralife" brand made for marine tanks ( there are many
brands...the majority are made from Limewood) with a suction cup or 2
attached to hold it down ( the little clear ones that are sold for airline
positioning) . Every 2 or 3 weeks the bubbles would start to get large so I
had a second one ready to go in. After the old one had dried out a light
sanding with fine sandpaper and a rinse and it was as good as new again. So
for about $4.00 for 2 of them you can get very good diffusion of CO2 with a
minimum of maintenance and expense. The bubble output is a real "mist" and
looks quite nice BTW IMHO. Not as efficient as my external HydroLogix
reactor- but a good, cheap alternative.
HTH,
Bob Buettner
From sunny, chilly NW CT
http://www.home.cshore.com/luna/Fishpics/Fishlinks.html