# Wooden Airstones for CO2



## tjc (Jan 17, 2006)

I've found that wooden air stones create so many fine bubbles with my CO2 set-up that I've created much more surface area of bubbles (several times more) and they take much longer to reach the surface and pop (5 to 10 times longer, even longer than that). 

Problem is that without out a reaction chamber, the bubbles flood the aquarium. I wouldn't be surprised if the wooden air stones are better than the power reactor I ordered.

After 3 days the air stone got clogged by that film that builds up from the CO2 and was causing bigger bubbles to form. As soon as I scraped that off, it was back to producing the very fine blizzard of bubbles.

I'm surprised I'm not reading anything about using wooden air stones for CO2. Again, you will need a chamber to control their dispersal throughout the aquarium.


----------



## slickwillislim (Oct 11, 2005)

To eliminate the buildup put a DIY bubble counter in between the bottle and the tank. I used to use a half filled gatorade bottle taped to the side of the two liter. The key is to make sure it wont fall over. 

I was thinking about a wooden airstone in my diy reactor and your experience makes me want to pick one up next time i go to the lfs.


----------



## baccardilord (Feb 1, 2006)

I was reading a post I believe was by the barr guy, anyways he said that lime wood (I think) was the best and what he did was direct his outlet from his return spray it over the plants (instead of bio balls in a reactor). Hope this helps haven't tried it yet.


----------



## tjc (Jan 17, 2006)

I have the CO2 bubbling up through my towering Cabomba. I'm worried that it would be too much for those plants effected, but so far no problems.


----------



## John S (Jan 18, 2005)

tjc it wont hurt anything the more co2 that plants have on them the better


----------



## BrianK (Feb 11, 2006)

Interesting. I didn't even know there were wooden airstones. I'll have to check that out.


----------



## jeff5614 (Feb 15, 2006)

I use them with DIY CO2 on my 55 and they produce a fine mist under the spray bar which spreads them out through the tank.


----------



## jeff63851 (Feb 23, 2005)

I never thought of the wooden airstones! I have to try this when I have time.


----------



## tjc (Jan 17, 2006)

The problem I'm finding with wooden airstones is that there's that build-up of 'film' over the airstone that prevents the formation of the fine bubbles and causes somewhat bigger bubbles to form though it's still better than naked air tubing. Even when covered with that "slime", it still produces some fine bubbles, but no where near as many as when the air stone is clean of that stuff. It seems to be that it needs to be cleaned every two days.

I just got my CO2 Power Reactor w/ the Rio pump, and I'll see how that goes. I was thinking of cutting my wooden airstone to fit in the reactor to see how that would work out also.


----------



## MrSanders (Mar 5, 2006)

This is often refered to as the "mist method" of delivering CO2. In my opinion it is one of the best ways to add CO2 having the CO2 mist all around the aquarium may not be the look that many want, however there are great benfits of allowing tiny bubbles of pure CO2 to come in direct contact with the leaves of the plants. Tom Barr turned me on to this and I am very pleased, keeps CO2 consistant through the day and levels are high from the start of the photo period, It has been the best way for me thus far and I have tried a LOT of different methods to get CO2 into my tank.
Matt


----------



## Dewmazz (Sep 6, 2005)

Wooden airstones tend to not have a vey long lifespan with DIY Co2. They will eventually begin to "rot" and a new one should be bought to replace it. The "film" coming from the airstone is common with DIY Co2. It's mostly yeast that somehow manages to make it's way through to the tank (other senior members, please correct me if I'm wrong). I find this happening maybe once every week or so. It helps to reduce the film build up if there is a gas seperator between the yeast bottle and the tank. Have you checked out this site at all? (http://www.qsl.net/w2wdx/aquaria/diyco2.html) Wooden airstones I find are better suited for nano tanks, but I'm still trying to find a small enough glass diffuser to replace my airstone (I currently have an airstone placed under the intake of a small rio powerhead). If it's a fairly small tank (and you can afford it), checkout the Paintball Co2 Thread. I'm still saving up to ge one of these systems for my 2 gal. I hope some of this helps.


----------



## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

Wooden airstones are the poor man's diy CO2 diffusion method. But they do not beat using a 1/4 inch piece of chopstick jammed in the powerhead intake or placed in front of the filter outflow.

The wooden airstones as well as the chopstick will get the slime from a pressurized CO2 system too. Replacing the chopstick piece costs nothing, plus it's miniature compared to a wooden airstone.

A powerhead "equipped" with a chopstick diffuser in the intake produces extremely fine bubbles. They can't be seen when observing the tank from about 4 ft away but tend to cling to the plants, cover them almost completely, and instead of green colors you end up with a sparkly, silvery covering resembling snow or ice. Also the huge amount of microbubbles somewhat visually reduce the water clarity.

The best approach is to direct the flow of the powerhead along the back wall - that way the microbubbles are less visible 

--Nikolay


----------



## defdac (May 10, 2004)

niko said:


> Wooden airstones are the poor man's diy CO2 diffusion method. But they do not beat using a 1/4 inch piece of chopstick jammed in the powerhead intake or placed in front of the filter outflow.


How long do you make the chop-stick-piece? Do you have a picture of it? Will try it for sure =)


----------

