DIY a way to prevent water droplet sprays from bursting bubbles

[nlh4ever]

Great idea over there! shall try it when i'm out of camp~

[Blue Whale]

Hahaha! White is difficult to procure though.
And wood is just a pain to work with as it floats and is frankly quite ugly after sometime

You see lor...ha ha...I told you easier to buy ready set. Because today even if you go PolyArt, Y618, AquaStar or 328, high chance you will procure the green, blue, grey type. White one depends whether stock available at these shops. And for places like 328, provided you can find it ^^" ha...should know what I mean. I think Serangoon and Clementi people have a higher chance of finding it.

Those interested to make one, please post up some pictures so as to encourage everyone. : )

[Navanod]

But but but~why are the whites better?! What mystical material are they made of?

[Blue Whale]

Wah....getting technical liao. I believe it's call White Corundum Air stone. You can search for Corundum in Wikipedia.
At least better than ceramic ones. : ) I don't study chemistry, I study accounts but works in I.T. XD ha ha...

[Navanod]

Don't look at me, I am no chemist either, although this is probably the domain knowledge of material engineering. Aluminum oxide based airstone...intriguing. I would never have found this on my own.

Google tells me that the thing is not always white and can be any color, although grey and white seemed to be most commonly used for airstones. Sadly, online sources are all from China. Mainly the dubious webstores opened by Mr Ali.
Perhaps I can look out for grey ones?

I also remembered why I disliked the wooden ones. When I first started out, I actually asked C328 why my airstones cannot produce fine mist-like bubbles and the auntie actually laughed at me (it's not an easy feat to get an expression from her!). She said it's only possible in salt water, but if I want, the wooden air diffusers are my best bet.

I cannot remember if I got finer bubbles, probably not, as my airpump was a miserable tiny FOC one which most likely couldn't even provide the required pressure.

But I do remember the pain of trying to keep the thing from floating free of the sucker pad, and eventually, becoming an algae planter before the plastic hose connector broke off from the wooden block...
Yikes, now I remember why I hated airpumps so much!

[Blue Whale]

Okie, I will try to search my memory. Usually the white ones comes in a plastic stick to a hard paper for hanging. (High Class packaging right?)

Ceramic Cheapo will either be one whole bunch in a basket or one in a zippy plastic. (-0-) Cheapo always package cheapo way....

A super powered air pump like my NS 8000 pump will not produce fine mist. Instead, it will still produce biggg...bubbles, even though I put it at Low switch. (L-M-H). Of course, there is always the CO2 diffuser to try out if you want to, even though not for the correct purpose ^^ Hee Hee...

[Navanod]

That thought did cross my tormented mind but I am worried that the CO2 diffuser will be so restrictive that nothing would come out. And it's really costly to be used as airstones!
Wait, I thought the CO2 diffusers are made of ceramic? But they are white...

Hmmmm...I may have a few spares CO2 diffusers lying around

[Blue Whale]

So if you can get fine mist you can forget about bubble stopper? ha ha..okies, I retire liao for the night. If got more replies, please wait for tomorrow. Nitez all.

[Navanod]

No, but with fine bubbles, the bubble stopper would not need to be so big?
Of course, at the same time I wonder if the fine bubbles would create as much water movements as larger bubbles

[tetrakid]

Fine bubbles are beautiful, but nowadays, I avoid exposing my fish to fine bubbles.

I am convinced that fine bubbles can be lodged in fish's gills making them malfunction. I am convinced because I notice tiny air bubbles on some plants are stuck stubbornly on the plants. Also, I have experienced stubborn tiny bubbles sticking to the side of glass surfaces, and simply remain there until I scrape them away. There are bubbles even smaller than those we can see.

[Navanod]

Plants and glass don't move, so of course the bubbles will stick to them.
I was reading about shrimps and how they prevent "fouling" of their gills. They actually have many "brushes" and "scrapers" on their tiny legs to clean their gills and bodies.
Fishes should also have developed a way to remove dirt and other things from their gills. Parasites, bacteria, worms and all sorts of nasty things are trying to cling to gills and grow there. Bubbles would be the last thing fishes are worried about.

I know the shrimps certainly would not be bothered by bubbles
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...145#post662145

[tetrakid]

I do agree with the reasoning. But I have come to differentiate between suspended air bubbles on the one hand, and dissolved gases (oxygen) on the other.

[Navanod]

Blue whale, you're not the first to think of it, hehehe



Tetrakid, You do have a point that sometimes, too much of a good thing may be bad too.

[Blue Whale]

ha..of course not, that one in the video cost you $8, still cheap cheap.

[Navanod]

Hmmm, considering that the Eheim Ball Diffuser cost $10 to buy separately from the airpump...yes, it is cheap cheap.

[Navanod]

Ok, I tested with 2 CO2 diffusers. They need alot of pressure to work.
For the larger one (with the thicker ceramic disk and a spiral glass thingie inside) I can only get a single stream of bubble, at full power on an Eheim 3704 with all other airlines shut off.
For the smaller cheapo one, it works pretty much like the video above, but also requires almost all the power from the air pump. Put anything else onto the airpump, and all the air would prefer to go there instead and the diffuser would not bubble at all.

Only viable for people with air compressors that can power 28 lines at the same time.

[stormhawk]

Found this site while trawling the web:

http://www.wonbrothers.com/product/a...e/airstone.htm

I think the efficiency and life of the air stone is dependent on the quality of the materials used. The one from the Totto product is probably made from very fine silica sand, or a type of high quality ceramic.

http://www.aquaristikshop.com/cdshop...usstroemer.htm

This site from Germany shows some air stones made with different materials. By the way Don, 2.79 Euro for the EHEIM diffuser.

[Navanod]

Wow thanks for the links!

According to Blue Whale, the best are made from Corundum, aluminum oxide. That wonbrothers link has it
Aluminum Oxide Low Pressure Ceramic Air Stone (DY102)

I don't really know what the TOTTO ones are made of, but after some comparisons, its really much better than other stones.
It's able to "leech" pressure off the Eheim ball (tightened to max) and another "normal" blue airstone, meaning that it's not as restrictive and can work under lower pressure.
However, the large amount of bubbles produced are quite uniformly forced out of the entire stone and although not mist-fine, are not as big as the normal airstone (mainly because the air is spilt evenly among all the pores).

$2.79EURO for Eheim diffuser, but $28.90EURO to ship!

http://www.aquaristikshop.com/cgi-bi...pl?t=e_versand

I'm now more interested in TOTTO's airstone than Eheim's diffuser, heh heh

[stormhawk]

The postage is for up to 3 kg, so if you're going to purchase this, make it worthwhile and find other stuff to add up on the weight.

[felix_fx2]

shopping for toys?
Do i get a chance to chip in (if any).