Squeeling airstones

My airstones keep making this obnoxious squealing noise and its driving me insane. Never happened before. Now all of a sudden I have to change to a brand new airstone every 12 hours or it starts squealing. Not the pump, the stone. Anyone know a solution?

 

WD40?? Heck..that fixes everything! Man can survive with a can of WD40 and a roll of duct tape!!

Seriously though....what size pump do you have running the airstone. What size airstone? Do you have a check valve? Is it in line with a gang valve? How deep is your tank and how far do you have the pump from the tank? What length of tubing?

I always thought that I just needed a small pump. Geez..it is only an airstone. BUT..I found that it also depends on how far the pump is away from the tank, the depth of the tank and the length of tubing. I am currently using a Fluval, Whisper and Top fin air pumps on my tanks. I prefer the Fluval..but then again..it is the largest pump.

Make sure that you have a check valve. If you do...try removing the valve and see if it quiets up the process. If it does..replace it and see if that quiets it up. It sounds as if you are not getting enough air to the stone. Is your tubing kinked in and around where it enters the tank? If so...a Gang Valve will clean everything up and eliminate the kinking. Kinked tubing could also be a sure fire recipe for squealing!

 

WD40?? Heck..that fixes everything! Man can survive with a can of WD40 and a roll of duct tape!!

Seriously though....what size pump do you have running the airstone. What size airstone? Do you have a check valve? Is it in line with a gang valve? How deep is your tank and how far do you have the pump from the tank? What length of tubing?

I always thought that I just needed a small pump. Geez..it is only an airstone. BUT..I found that it also depends on how far the pump is away from the tank, the depth of the tank and the length of tubing. I am currently using a Fluval, Whisper and Top fin air pumps on my tanks. I prefer the Fluval..but then again..it is the largest pump.

Make sure that you have a check valve. If you do...try removing the valve and see if it quiets up the process. If it does..replace it and see if that quiets it up. It sounds as if you are not getting enough air to the stone. Is your tubing kinked in and around where it enters the tank? If so...a Gang Valve will clean everything up and eliminate the kinking. Kinked tubing could also be a sure fire recipe for squealing!

I have a whisper 109 that I was using before but it was super loud. So now its on an elite802, don't know the brand. I have a check valve and a gang. It isn't the pump, it's the stones themselves. I move it up and down and still get the noise. 75 gallon tank, the thing I'm using at the moment isn't really a stone,
this and the stones iv been switching out all start squealing after a bit. No kinks or anything. The tubing is only enough to reach from the stone in the tank, down the back and to the pump on the floor. So like 3 feet probably a tad more. It's like some if the holes are larger so they squeal when water goes through. Idk. It's just extremely annoying. I'd make a video if I knew how to post it. I want something that gives me nice small bubbles, but isn't gonna start squealing after a day.

 

Other than what I suggested....I have no clue.except to try a different stone. If it ain't the pump....if it's not kinked....it should not SQUEAL. What squeals? The airstone? Is it the interaction with the water? Even with the squeal...do you get bubbles? Maybe try a different pump! As I said...I have several...but unless the pump has enough power to blow enough air through the tubing..you COULD get squeal...but my friend..it is all experimentation.

 

Other than what I suggested....I have no clue.except to try a different stone. If it ain't the pump....if it's not kinked....it should not SQUEAL. What squeals? The airstone? Is it the interaction with the water? Even with the squeal...do you get bubbles? Maybe try a different pump! As I said...I have several...but unless the pump has enough power to blow enough air through the tubing..you COULD get squeal...but my friend..it is all experimentation.

Yes. The airstone squeals. As stated. If taken out if water it squeals a little too. I get bubbles. If I take the stone off I hear no noise other than the bubbles. Put the airstone back and it makes noise. I only run one little one with a big pump. It does it with every pump I have.

 

Maybe it's too much air going through too small of an airstone. What if you try a larger airstone. One of those big, long ones, perhaps?

I have used the ones you show in your photo, and I believe I had some squealing out of them when I ran them too hard. But the upside was that they made a lot of nice, fine bubbles.

 

Maybe it's too much air going through too small of an airstone. What if you try a larger airstone. One of those big, long ones, perhaps?

I have used the ones you show in your photo, and I believe I had some squealing out of them when I ran them too hard. But the upside was that they made a lot of nice, fine bubbles.

I use a gang to lower the flow. But ill try that

 

If you use a gang valve (or any valve) to lower the flow through something, always make sure you do this by venting the excess air that the pump produces to the atmosphere. That way, you don't increase the back pressure on the pump any more than you have to. Having excessive back pressure on most of these air pumps will shorten the life of their "reed valves".

 

I have the same problem with a bubble wand that I got at petco. It was pretty loud. The wand is over a foot long so I don't think that it's too much air. I have a wiser 40 in a 29 h.

 

It might be something in the design or the particular airstones. Perhaps part of them behaves as the reed in a reed instrument, or like the mouthpiece of a flute where it divides off a section of the airflow and it creates an oscillation.

With the ones the OP shows, it might also be air escaping between the plastic airstone and the tube it's pushed onto. That plastic has an elastic nature to it and might repeatedly push open, then close off, then push open, then close off, creating a squeal like when you let the air out of a balloon and stretch the neck of it wide so it squeals and squeaks.