NEED SOLUTION, NO AIRSTONES ANYWHERE

[SodaLicious]

O.k. I live in a remote location, nowhere in my nearest town can I find any airstones. I have some babies that are due to go into their new DWC homes, but can't find ANY stones!!!! What can I do in the meantime? Can I just run the hose in there bubbling??, if so how would you recommend weighting it down? Thanks for any and all help!

 

[stutter]

if you have access to a water pump use it to "flume" fluming is very efficient

if you don't have a water pump build a water farm style riser and use it to create a waterfall effect. you will need a pice of 8mm plastic tube as long as your water is deep. drill a hole about an inch from one end of it just big enough to insert your airline then submerge that end in your bucket and somehow keep the other end above the water level. the air bubbles will travel up the tube and carry water with them and it will cascade back into the res creating d/o in your water.

 

[outwest]

Are there any pet stores nearby? They have air stones for fish tanks.

outwest

 

[Steel Erection]

I don't care where you go there's a walmart within 15 miles. Go to their pet section and .....Viola you have airstones. Shitty airstones but airstones -SE

 

[SmokeyPipes]

Well since you were able to post this,try using the internet and buy them online!!

 

[SodaLicious]

I don't care where you go there's a walmart within 15 miles. Go to their pet section and .....Viola you have airstones. Shitty airstones but airstones -SE

Walmart in my area no longer carries air stones. They have stupid air curtain pieces of junk things that feel like cardboard and bubble for 1 day then nothing.

 

[SodaLicious]

I don't care where you go there's a walmart within 15 miles. Go to their pet section and .....Viola you have airstones. Shitty airstones but airstones -SE

Also there isn't another walmart for over 2000 KM

 

[SodaLicious]

Well since you were able to post this,try using the internet and buy them online!!

That is the plan, but that could be weeks away, and I need a solution now, not in 3 weeks time.

 

[SodaLicious]

if you have access to a water pump use it to "flume" fluming is very efficient

if you don't have a water pump build a water farm style riser and use it to create a waterfall effect. you will need a pice of 8mm plastic tube as long as your water is deep. drill a hole about an inch from one end of it just big enough to insert your airline then submerge that end in your bucket and somehow keep the other end above the water level. the air bubbles will travel up the tube and carry water with them and it will cascade back into the res creating d/o in your water.

I like this idea, so far it's the only feasible solution. I am getting stones but it's going to be a couple weeks, so I need some solution for temporary until they arrive.

 

[leadsled]

drill holes in pvc pipe or make slits with a hacksaw. seal the end. glue on fitting with threads, then use a threaded barb to connect the air line. diy "air diffusers"

Other than the pet stores, can also try hardware stores have a pond sections that stocks airstones etc. home de pot ace etc..

 

[Seamaiden]

You can use airline tubing, PVC, or pretty much any tubing that you can rubberband a rock or similar to, with holes or slits drilled throughout to make it work. You could also try pulling one of the adapters from your old stones and drilling a piece of wood, then glue in the insert. That will, however, tend to produce super-fine bubbles, which may fractionate. You could drill the wood itself with holes, too, couldn't you?

Got a drill?

 

[SodaLicious]

Thanks for all the replies, I have the airlines weighted down with a little bit of chain for now, with no stones on they are bubbling large bubbles enough to keep everything bouncing around nice enough for now. I've found a company online that will rush deliver to my area. I've ordered enough to last 2 grows. Price you pay for living remote I guess!

 

[green punk]

Sewing machine the air line make a loop w a T. Now loop is air stone. Weight with old lag bolt or nut.

 

[Seamaiden]

Thanks for all the replies, I have the airlines weighted down with a little bit of chain for now, with no stones on they are bubbling large bubbles enough to keep everything bouncing around nice enough for now. I've found a company online that will rush deliver to my area. I've ordered enough to last 2 grows. Price you pay for living remote I guess!

Ok, I have to first qualify my remarks so folks understand where I'm coming from (any fishkeepers will immediately grok me on this, I think). First, I have no experience running any kind of water cultivation of terrestrial plants. I HAVE kept aquatic plants, and of course fish & inverts. So I see things with 'fish-eyes'.

Second, it's important to understand where the CO2/O2 gas exchange occurs, and that is, outside of a venturi scenario, ONLY at the surface. That is specifically why fluming works so well, it creates a huge amount of surface agitation and turbulence, thus enhancing the gas exchange (the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide molecules, back and forth, til they reach an equilibrium).

So! Even if you're getting large bubbles, it seems to me that if you're getting good surface agitation then you're getting good DO (dissolved oxygen) levels, and that's what you're after here, yes? Maybe the airstones are really extraneous here.

 

[Cort]

venturi set up. you have everything you need

 

[stutter]

oooooohh!!! i like the look of that venturi. i have never seen one of those before. i like the idea that it is mixing the air with the water in the pipe. i think i would like to experiment with adding a venturi in line before my drip rings so the water getting pumped through my drip rings gets the venturi aeration treatment on its way to the plants.

i currently have water farm drip rings on each bucket and it works by picking up the highly oxygenated surface water to take to the root zone. however i think a venturi could give me similar results on a larger scale stop with less fuss

 

[Liberanos5]

Ok, I have to first qualify my remarks so folks understand where I'm coming from (any fishkeepers will immediately grok me on this, I think). First, I have no experience running any kind of water cultivation of terrestrial plants. I HAVE kept aquatic plants, and of course fish & inverts. So I see things with 'fish-eyes'.

Second, it's important to understand where the CO2/O2 gas exchange occurs, and that is, outside of a venturi scenario, ONLY at the surface. That is specifically why fluming works so well, it creates a huge amount of surface agitation and turbulence, thus enhancing the gas exchange (the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide molecules, back and forth, til they reach an equilibrium).

So! Even if you're getting large bubbles, it seems to me that if you're getting good surface agitation then you're getting good DO (dissolved oxygen) levels, and that's what you're after here, yes? Maybe the airstones are really extraneous here.

Grok THAT!!!