Air stone not filling completely with air

[jpsracing]

Hi --

Frustrating issue here -- I have an Aqueon 100 air pump running air to a Top Fin air stone (about 4" long) in my 50 gallon freshwater tank. The annoying part is that instead of a nice 3-4" wall of bubbles air is only coming out of the stone at the first 3/4" or so from the air line.

I would have thought that a pump rated at 100g would move enough air for a relatively small stone in a 50g tank.

Now there's two hookup points on the back of the pump and I am only using one -- could this be part of the problem? Do I need to add a second stone for the other air line port? Or block it off with a piece of tube and a dab of silicone? Or is this nothing to do with the lack of air thru the stone?

Is it a cheap-o stone? Is there a better brand? Do I maybe need a shorter stone?

Years ago I have a similar issue with a different pump and one of those "bubble wall" green tubes. I finally just gave up and kept the water level down a bit for some surface agitation.

Thanks for any insight y'all can provide. I'm trying to have a beautiful healthy tank and everything is going well so far (@ 6 months in) and I'd like to add the health benefits and visual interest of some bubbles.

 

[dougall]

Try joining both of the air pump outputs to the airstone using air hose and a 'T'

so maybe an inch of hose off both of the ports of the pump, then into 2 of the ends of the T, then the hose from the stone (or the check valve if applicable) going to the center of the T.

I don't recall covering up one of the pump holes having a positive effect.

 

[jpsracing]

There are very basic instructions with the airstone as to how to hook it up, and how to clean it, but in snooping around the googles I see that some folks have soaked their stones prior to using them. So I disconnected the power for a couple minutes and the stone now has air flow thru about half of it. I will try this again in a little while to see if I can get air to fill the stone entirely.

This would be a good tip for the manufacturer to include on the back of the packaging if this indeed the solution.

 

[myswtsins]

Could be a cheap stone or the 2nd output not being hooked up. If you hold your finger over the 2nd port does the flow increase to the stone? Tried hooking up both ports? I have an air pump "rated" for some crazy high amount (a pond pump) and it's just enough to run a regular sponge filter so those rating can be deceiving.

Very true, it's so simple to add "soak before use" to the package and it does make a difference.

 

[jpsracing]

I added a second stone so both air outlets are being used and flow thru both stones is about 85% so I guess that's pretty good. Letting them soak a bit made the biggest difference.

 

[myswtsins]

Did you try adding both outlets to 1 stone though? That will surely give you 100% if the stones aren't crap. But yeah 2 at 85% is even better.

 

[jpsracing]

Did you try adding both outlets to 1 stone though? That will surely give you 100% if the stones aren't crap. But yeah 2 at 85% is even better.

Didn't try that because I don't have a Y connector for the air lines to feed into.

 

[jpsracing]

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[jpsracing]

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[jpsracing]

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