Need for the Aeration of the fish tank?

[Bob Vento]

I thought that the process of the bed water flowing fast back into the fish tank provided the oxygen for the fish?  I also used a suggestion from another member ... of drilling angled holes in my grow bed drain pipe to create a venture affect thus introducing more oxygen into the fish tank. My system is flood and drain 24/7.

However, the more I read ... a lot of you are providing extra aeration to your tanks... is that necessary or just a precautionary measure?

If so ... what would ya'll suggest I buy, for a reasonable price, for aerating my fish tank to insure proper oxygenation of the water for my fish?

Sure would like some advise and comments. 

Thanks,
Bob

[Bob Campbell]

How do you clean your air stones?

TCLynx said:

... and air stones may need rejuvenation when they get clogged up ...

[TCLynx]

I've read some descriptions of the process on some aquarium forums.  Sorry I don't have a link handy.

First you need to make sure your air stones are good high quality ones that will stand up to cleaning.  The really cheap ones I've used in the past would usually just crumble before you even got to start cleaning it so those you just replace.

It usually has to do with taking the stone out of service for a few days.  (I'm not entirely sure of the order of things here so you should probably do some searching to get the real instructions.)  You dry the stone out, then you soak it in acid or vinegar, then you rinse it and dry it out again, then you soak it in bleach (I'm not sure if this is really necessary) then rinse and dry it out again and depending on your water hardness and minerals, you might even soak it in vinegar again.

Drying it out between is kinda important since if you leave it wet, sometimes the moisture that is trapped in it will keep the acid from really getting in and removing the carbonate and mineral buildup which is the primary thing clogging most air stones.

However, if your air pump sits in a really dusty location, you should probably be sure to replace it's air filters more often since too much dust getting into the air stones will also clog them and might not be as easily cleaned out as the hard water minerals.

[Jon Parr]

Try hydrogen peroxide

[TCLynx]

Do you mean instead of bleach?   Jon?

Jon Parr said:

Try hydrogen peroxide

[Vlad Jovanovic]

I just use the Sodium Perborate tetrahydrate (solid form of hydrogen peroxide...just cuz I have a big bag of it lying around, and it'll keep for ever, unlike the liquid hydrogen peroxide), mix it with water to get the desired strength of hydrogen peroxide solution, and soak my air stones in that. Then rinse, dry out (and sometimes rinse again if I think I over did it, but my water is hard and has a high pH so I usually don't bother with multiple rinses)...It takes care of any calcium carbonate build up on/in the stones (since hydrogen peroxide is pretty acidic) and "sterilizes" at the same time...

(hehe...just be careful not to knock over the vinegar and bleach at the same time, if you are going that route)...

[Jon Parr]

No TC, just peroxide. Soak them overnight, quick rinse and plug them back in, no worry about residual acid or bleach, 'cause peroxide is harmless to fish and plants, and the tiny amount left over in the stone is trivial to the biofilter.

That's cool, glad. Never heard of sodium perborate tetrahydrade. I'd love to have a dry storage product like that, and be able mix stronger solutions occasionally. Where and how do you buy that stuff? The US is getting pretty tough to buy some chemicals with the threat of bomb makers and Meth-heads. Like lye for instance. We wanted to make olives last year, having been given buckets of olives. Turns out lye is pretty much outlawed now, since it's used in making Chrystal Meth

[TCLynx]

I've not heard that lye was used for Meth, It is still available for soap making and many many other uses as it is heavily used in industry and agriculture and even food and medicine.

You could always make your own lye by leaching wood ashes the way they do for making old fashion soap.

You can buy high % liquid hydrogeen peroxide but it ships haz mat so that raises the price.

Hum, lets see where one might get Sodium Perborate tetrahydrate?

Oh the same place I've seen to get Lye

http://www.soapgoods.com/

Oh, and you can probably get the high % liquid hydrogen peroxide from places that sell it for use in shocking pools and stuff.

[George]

You make an interesting point about the investment and I feel the same way about redundant or backup aeration.  Regardless of whether a person has hundreds of dollars or tens of thousands in a system, it's still an investment which needs to protected.  It would be no small thing to me if fish and bacteria that I've been feeding for 6 months died, plants too. 

matthew ferrell said:

Like TC said, its not cheap, but when you are invested like we are, these are just the normal tools of the trade.

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Now, I've never made any meth, but I thought those 'chemists' used the sodium hydroxide lye (useless for AP, and only good for gel soaps really), and not the potassium hydroxide lye for some reason or another..? (yeah, both are called lye).

I'm guessing you need the sodium hydroxide lye for the olives? Which I haven't a clue about how to go about making in a home environment...TC's link looks great...

Yeah the perborate is pretty cool, and cleans EVERYTHING. Pretty safe to use too, unless you're a total f***ing moron.

(I'll save TC the trouble this time, and post my public service announcement/disclaimer here....this isn't directed at anyone specific, least of all you Jon.....

"DONT GO DOING SOMETHING THAT WOULD PUT YOU IN THE CATEGORY OF 'TOTAL F***ING MORON'. LIKE MIXING HYDROGEN PEROXIDE (OR PERBORATE) WITH BLEACH. Or "...dumping a bucket of the stuff into their fish tank thinking it would take care of dissolved oxygen problems or something"...

Holy crap TC! That site you linked TC has got it ALL! And in what ever quantities you could need. From 1 lb to 2000lbs! The place I can source a lot of that stuff here makes you buy in pretty goofy quantities...like how many spider mites can you kill with 25 litres of essential oil of lavender (or bars of soap for that matter)..?

Jon Parr said:

No TC, just peroxide. Soak them overnight, quick rinse and plug them back in, no worry about residual acid or bleach, 'cause peroxide is harmless to fish and plants, and the tiny amount left over in the stone is trivial to the biofilter.

That's cool, glad. Never heard of sodium perborate tetrahydrade. I'd love to have a dry storage product like that, and be able mix stronger solutions occasionally. Where and how do you buy that stuff? The US is getting pretty tough to buy some chemicals with the threat of bomb makers and Meth-heads. Like lye for instance. We wanted to make olives last year, having been given buckets of olives. Turns out lye is pretty much outlawed now, since it's used in making Chrystal Meth

[Bob Campbell]

@ TCLynx,

@Jon Parr and

@Vlad

Thanks for an interesting discussion about cleaning air stones! 

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for the many times you have shared your knowledge.  

I would not be where I am without you guys.

It might be a little over board, but I just hooked up to an Active Aqua 70 Liter/Minute air pump.

This will not be the only tank I feed from this pump, but I bought this and wanted to see what it would do

http://youtu.be/gW-uaN-qz_Q

[TCLynx]

ya can never have too much air, well I suppose blowing so much air into your tank that your are boiling the poor fish right out might be overkill but you can always do something with the extra air, even if it is just having an extra tank to aerate so you can make worm or compost tea or having the extra air to pump into a tank or barrel to prep water by blowing out the chlorine or to be able to make pH adjustments to the top up water before use.  Or having an extra tank with air for salt dips/bath when getting new fish etc and so on.

So Vlad?  How many bars of soap would you kill with 25 liters of essential oil of lavender?

like how many spider mites can you kill with 25 litres of essential oil of lavender (or bars of soap for that matter)..?

sorry couldn't resist

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Alot! I'm not a huge fan of the lavender scent, but it's one of the few natural scents that will last a relatively long time in a bar of soap (unlike most of the stuff I like). So, after the other scents have dissipated, the lavender lingers on. I joke that the lavender stinks so bad that it "kills" the other scents...but many of the ladies seem to like it for some reason...

TCLynx said:

So Vlad?  How many bars of soap would you kill with 25 liters of essential oil of lavender?

like how many spider mites can you kill with 25 litres of essential oil of lavender (or bars of soap for that matter)..?

sorry couldn't resist