Airstones - Which produces the finest bubbles?

Howzit fellow fishnuts!

I would like to find out which readily available airstone produces the finest bubbles. My current leader is a Limewood airstone.

Anything better out there?

 

Never thought of looking at the bubble sizes, I just go BUBBLES!! Woohooo

 

Hahaha! I found a free protein skimmer, and being who I am I'm trying to get it to work with my freshwater tank, BUT in order to do that you need the smallest possible bubbles and millions thereof per second to cater for the lack of surface tension. Regular airstones just don't cut it...

Limewood seems to be used in 90% of the cases for small non-venturi skimmers. Guess that's as fine as it goes...

 

Good luck with that, I dont think the protein binding properties a protein skimmer achieves in salt water are achievable in fresh water. Hence the fact that they not used for fresh water.

 

Be that as it may, I have never been one to conform to social norms by merely following the broad and proven spectrum of things... Unless I have proved it's feasability to myself, albeit highly unlikely to work, I feel that the chance is always there that someone else could get it to work, prove it's benefit to the masses and make millions.

The success of the skimmer will be greatly impacted by the bio load and water change frequency, as the surface tension of freshwater aquariums are determined by these (among other parameters). Dirty water, for lack of a better word, is more likely to have a stronger surface tension and thus could perhaps hold a bubble long enough to make skimming possible. That is what I wish to test. And as I got the skimmer for free, the success of the test will not impact me so I might as well give it a go! It does not have to skim 24/7, but even if it only works when the water starts getting old / dirty, I would deem it valuable.

Never take your ideas for granted ;-)

 

Intresting! Keep us in the loop!

 

Use balsa wood as a cheap air stone.

 

That is what I like! Someone like you, or even you, will still prove perpetual motion and free energy does exist.

 

Hey... then you will like me even more... I'm still trying to convince my darn science teacher that if you concentrate hard enough, steady your heart beat, slow down your breathing, you can actually SEE an atom! It's those tiny electrons I'm struggling to see...

 

ha ha ha ha ha ha, brilliant....

 

Why do you still know your science teacher?

Also one to test everything for myself even when I know the others failed. O unless one died.

 

You get fresh water skimmers, bur they are huge and normally used on koi ponds... a regular marine skimmer wont work in fresh water beacuse of the viscosity difference between fresh and salt water (you will never get those fine bubbles, no matter what airstone you use, even with a needle wheel pump...) The reason the koi pond skimmers work is because there is a huge amount of crap in the water of the pond, if you were able to skim a normal fresh water tank with a normal skimmer you would not want to be keeping any sort of fish in that water, because it would need to be super dirty to get any sort of skimate.

Ps. those wooden airstones produce the finest bubbles (that is why they were used in old skimmers) but even if you got a powerfull needle wheel/mesh wheel or any other type of skimmer pump it would not work on fresh water. A decent skimmer is a expensive piece of equipment, and it makes sense using them on marine tanks to prolong water changes, because water changes can be expensive (salt+RO and so on), for fresh water normal tap water is sufficient 90% of the time which is cheap compared to salt water water changes.

 

Ja, ja, you can not fool the laws of nature! I get it... Only looking for a loophole thats been left there intensionally, like using a microscope..

 

Well, amongst all the mixed criteria an answer has in fact surfaced... Looks like Limewood airstones are the way to go. This particular Weipro uses a venturi, but it seems that whoever sold it to my brother in law misplaced a few of it's crucial parts... Hmmm...

Thanks for everyone's input, both the positive to assist and negative to inspire. I'll see what happens. Odds are you're all right and there's no way on earth I can get it to work, upon which I will gladly admit my failure as a DIY enthusiast and retreat to some remote location where I will grow my own fruit and have a best friend named Wilson who is also a coconut.