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Re: Fancy airstones



It seems that Dave's use of a more familiar term for an uncommon item may
have confused some people.

Ed Dumas can't find any "fancy airtstones".

Dupla - go to the main Dupla website, select your language and then select
the Dupla CO2 System. The "fany airstone" is called "Dupla CO2-Zerstauber"
and there is a photo on one in use in an aquarium. I have a number of them
and they are better made than the Eheim diffusor (how that affects actual
in-tank performance is anyone's guess, but I appreciate the fact that it
will probably last longer). There is a built in check valve and a small
chamber which can act as a bubble counter. The unit can be easily taken
apart for cleaning (bleach solution soak and a toothbrush). Properly
positioned in the tank, it should be capable of supplying sufficient CO2 for
a tank of up to 40-50 gallons.

There is NO DOUBT in my mind that these things are designed to work with
compressed gas ONLY. I don't recommend buying something and then taking half
of it apart to jury rig it into a yeast CO2 setup. But hey, its your
money.....

The "Cadillacs" of this type of CO2 diffusion device are made by ADA and are
made from hand blown glass in a variety of sizes. I have one called "Pollen
Glass Beetle 30" (thanks again Art!). If you have access to ADA products and
can afford the sticker shock, they are very nice and come in a variety of
sizes for different sized tanks. But they don't come apart for cleaning the
ceramic disk, so DON'T try to use one of the ADA glass diffusors with a
yeast CO2 system because the gunk that comes out of such a system will soon
clog the diffusion disk and it will be difficult if not impossible to clean.

Another alternative for yeast CO2 setup's would be to get a small AquaClear
Power Filter, the kind that hangs onto the lip of the aquarium. The plastic
intake strainer has a number of slots on the end which act as a strainer -
use fine tipped scissors to cut one of these out and shove the output tube
from your yeast CO2 generator bottle into this space and thread it up into
the tube. The slight suction formed by the water flowing into the filter
unit when it is working will pull the CO2 gas into the impellor chamber
where it gets mixed with the tank water. It seems to work fine for me - I've
used this on several small tanks to good effect. You have to be sure to keep
the water level in your tank high enough so that the CO2 enriched water
flows back into the aquarium without causing too much surface disturbance.

James Purchase
Toronto