Getting An Air Stone

So I’ve been researching air stones or decorative items that can connect to the Tetra Whisper air pump I just got. I know this isn’t really necessary, but I love the look of the bubbles in an aquarium. Are there any suggestions for an air stone or decorative piece that won’t mess up the aesthetics of the aquarium? I don’t want to end up with a bunch of tubes and I don’t like the look of the air stones if I can’t tuck it away. Does that make sense? I’m going to get a 20-gallon aquarium in the near future so I may even wait to do this until then so I can play with the aquascaping and figure out an aesthetically pleasing way to hide the air stone. Thoughts? Is a 10-gallon aquarium too small for something like this?

 

Why would you want to hide it, either do it or save it and use it for a sponge filter for your 20 gallon, hiding it makes it useless imo

 

Do yourself a favor, wait for the Aqueon $1/gallon sale and get a 29 gallon tank. You will give yourself and your livestock a treat. Bigger is better. You can install all the goodies and bury the support lines under an inch and a half of gravel. Just a thought...

 

29 isn’t that good value, if you can, get 20 long Petco has a sale

 

I have a hoarders pile of suction cups with airline clips(buy a package almost everytime i am in petco). This work great to tuck the airline out of the way. I would tuck the airstone behind a plant or something so you can still see the bubbles but don't have to smacked by seeing the airstone itself.

 

Why would you want to hide it, either do it or save it and use it for a sponge filter for your 20 gallon, hiding it makes it useless imo

I want the bubbles to appear from the rocks or even the substrate.

 

More water is better for the fishies. In my opinion, if you are interested in upgrading a 10 - go for a tank that supports the livestock better. Actually, I would prefer a 55 - for the fish and aquascaping potential.

 

29 isn’t that good value, if you can, get 20 long Petco has a sale

You can get a 29 gallon tank at Petco for $29. The sale is going on now. A 20 long will cost $20. To me, the 29 gallon is a far better option as it occupies the same footprint as the 20 gallon long, but contains nearly 50% more water.

The 29 gallon is the largest tank on sale for $1/gal, but other sizes are 50% off, so if you can afford a larger tank (and the larger heaters, filters, lights, etc. ) the bigger the better.

The best use of a 10 gallon tank is to house a betta or a few guppies or neon tetras, ember tetras, or cherry barbs. Or just save it for a quarantine/hospital tank.

 

Get a gang splitter while you are at it. One with adjusting valves. You can add or subtract air that way to adjust the aesthetic appearance of the bubbles.

 

I want the bubbles to appear from the rocks or even the substrate.

Get a bubbler. Then the bubbles will ACTUALLY come from the rocks. You use suction cups to keep the tubes on the wall and then run the airline up to the hole in the back and then voila bubbles from the rocks! Make sure you are getting a bubbler though. It’ll have a little plastic tube on it that the airline can connect to. I have this and love it.

 

Get a bubbler. Then the bubbles will ACTUALLY come from the rocks. You use suction cups to keep the tubes on the wall and then run the airline up to the hole in the back and then voila bubbles from the rocks! Make sure you are getting a bubbler though. It’ll have a little plastic tube on it that the airline can connect to. I have this and love it. View attachment 745841

Yes! Thank you!

You can get a 29 gallon tank at Petco for $29. The sale is going on now. A 20 long will cost $20. To me, the 29 gallon is a far better option as it occupies the same footprint as the 20 gallon long, but contains nearly 50% more water.

The 29 gallon is the largest tank on sale for $1/gal, but other sizes are 50% off, so if you can afford a larger tank (and the larger heaters, filters, lights, etc. ) the bigger the better.

The best use of a 10 gallon tank is to house a betta or a few guppies or neon tetras, ember tetras, or cherry barbs. Or just save it for a quarantine/hospital tank.

I’m getting the 29-gallon tank today. My goal is to move my fish (two Mollies, two Swordtails, and two Nerite Snails [and now two bladder snails that apparently came from the plants]) from the 10- to the 29-gallon tank, but I need to research the safest way to do this after my bigger tank is cycled. I’m also going to use this opportunity to play with aquascaping!

 

Don’t let the bladder snails live they multiply from 2 to 100 in days

The safest way would be to just drip acclimate them which is the easiest thing ever

 

Do a small bubble bar and bury it along the back in your substrate then the bubbles will push the substrate out of the way and you might get the look your looking for

 

You can add function to fun with some imagination. I hid my foam filter, got lots of bubbles and a cleaner tank.

 

Another way to hide your plumbing is to get colored tubing. You can find air line in green and even black. The back of my tank is black and I have black air line tubing. It , fades from sight something lovely.
I have one of those big round air pads that put out a big mass of bubbles. It is tucked away behind a large flat stone that I picked for its looks. You can't see the mechanics at all, just the effect. There is a lovely big column of bubbles going up that appear to come out of the rock.

I like KribensisLover1 's bubbler idea a lot.

A bubble wand that goes across the entire back of the tank and makes a “wall” of bubbles can be really cool too.

By the way, air bubbles serve a very good purpose in the tank: the help keep the water circulating so you don't get “dead” spots in the tank. The also break up the surface of the tank, increasing the oxygen level in your water.

Nice score on the 29g. That should be a lot of fun to escape.

 

By the way, air bubbles serve a very good purpose in the tank: the help keep the water circulating so you don't get “dead” spots in the tank. The also break up the surface of the tank, increasing the oxygen level in your water.

A water pump placed on the bottom of the tank and aimed upwards does the same thing (or better) yet doesn't work nearly as well as an air stone.

 

Yes! Thank you!


I’m getting the 29-gallon tank today. My goal is to move my fish (two Mollies, two Swordtails, and two Nerite Snails [and now two bladder snails that apparently came from the plants]) from the 10- to the 29-gallon tank, but I need to research the safest way to do this after my bigger tank is cycled. I’m also going to use this opportunity to play with aquascaping!

Once your 29 gallon tank is cycled, start mixing water from the two tanks. Since you are using the same tap water in both tanks, they should have very similar water parameters. I finished cycling a 40 gallon tank a few weeks ago. The water parameters between it and the 20 gallon they were in previously were so close that I just moved a few fish each day from the 20 gallon to the 40. Just make sure the temperature and pH are nearly identical. I just netted the fish and dropped them into the new tank.

When you bring fish home from a LFS, you need to acclimate them as the temperature, pH, hardness, etc. are likely to be different, but unless you are trying to keep tanks at different parameters to suit specific fish, you should try to keep all your tanks pretty close to one another.

 

I use these Pawfly Air Stone in my tank and they make a massive number of bubbles -- be sure to soak them 2 hours before you pressurize them. It works great. Very happy with these stones.

 

I have a large circle “air stone” behind a big flat rock here. The airline tubing itself is black on a black background.
It turned out pretty well, visually. The airflow causes a Lot of current in the tank