Tumbleweed

I had never heard of any negarive affects of using air stones in a saltwater tank, but I was looking around on another forum and they had a list posted of the biggest needs and mistakes in keeping a salt water tank and it stated.

"AIR BUBBLES ARE BAD FOR A SALTWATER TANK. This means that you want to make sure your sump has baffles to prevent bubbles, and you definitely do not want any air stones in your marine aquarium – whether it be just fish or reef. Air bubbles cause problems to fish and corals alike. The negatives of an air stone/bubbler are: air can get lodged in a fishes gills, air stones do not give you gallon per hour turns - like powerheads do, can cause bubble algae (air bubbles all over your live rock - not the bubble algae emerald crabs eat), can cause stress to the fish (popeye), cause salt creep which in turn causes irregular salinity/SG, and when bubbles pop the water can get on your lights causing the life off your lights to decline rapidly. Some periodic air bubbles are not harmful, but constant ones are."

Does anybody else know about this?

Oil_Fan

I can tell you from what I experienced. I had an air stone in my main tank and a treasure chest that bubbles up when it fills with air. The air stone did cause salt creep. It would happen on the lens cover of my light fixture. That cover protects the actual bulbs so that part of what they said wouldn't be an issue.

I ended up removing the stone because of all the salt I would have to remove but I still have the chest in the tank.

Now in my quarantine tank, I do keep a regular air stone in there. But then again I don't have protein skimmer so I use it as a way to keep the water oxygenated.

But none of my fish has ever had an issue due to the air stone or the treasure chest.

sirdarksol

Some of this is likely just guesses. If you've ever seen a partially exposed reef, you know that air bubbles are everywhere as the surf breaks over them, and the fish and coral don't seem to suffer horribly from these.
The biggest point that I can see is salt creep. That would definitely be a problem.

agsansoo

Air bubbles do not hurt the livestock ! In fact some people inject air bubbles into there reef tanks with timers and powerheads, because they feel it's more natural. I lived in Hawaii and there was always air bubbles in the water on the reefs. Salt creep is the problem !

Tumbleweed

I removed the air stones from my tank mainly because of the salt creep problem. I also added 2 Koralia #4 power heads to the tank to help with water movement. Now my problem is moving them around to different areas to see if I can get good flow while not having the sand in the bottum of the tank blown around.