how to clean air stones?

So I had an issue with bacteria in my res and my air stones were in there. What's the best way to clean them? I read that to scrub em under water. Let dry. Boil them for 20 minutes(mine has plastic on them though). Soak em in bleach for 24hrs in a 3 part water 1 part bleach solution for 24hrs. Take em out rinse and hook up to air pump and let run underwater for 10 min. Take out and let em run into the air for another 10 min and let dry and they sholuld be good.

Also heard just an h2o2 soak.

What do y'all do?

just buy new ones there cheap

I use the 2" round stones so my method is this. Run under hit water clean off any crap left on it. Take it outside and rub the side and bottom on concrete just to open the next layer of pores. Take back to house add 1 cup florakleen in a pot fill with water to cover stone. Bring water to boil as I'm scrubbing the stone under more hot water. Boil for 15-20 min. Let cool on counter and blow into hole to force any standing water out. Then let it cool and dry for 30 min. Rince in more florakleen and water. Add air for 10 min. Rince under clean water and done. But if I'm worried there carrying something I spend 3 buck and get a new stone.

I didn't get cheap ones so not bout to drop another 40 for another pair

I got the micro pore xl air stones. They were 26 retail at my hydro shop. The guy said they're a good stone but most people don't get em cause they're so pricey. But I'm all about getting quality parts. Wish I had bought the 2 dollar ones now. Thinking about replacing the pump since that was only 10 dollars.

I'm going to go with a shotgun approach and do what I read and then soak for an additional day in h2o2 and then I may go crazy and repeat the boiling and soaking in bleach/water.

What's florakleen?

bubble in a bleach solution for 15 then take it out and bubble in hot water

Do that but save a few buck and get 2 of the cheep stones. And try them with your pump. You might be suprized. The micro stones work the shit out of pumps while the larger stones alow more flow. The dissolved oxygen in water is about the same. And if you don't like them you will have backup stones if you need to clean you micros agine.

Ill bubble them in the bleach solution also.

Yeah I hear stories of the cheap ones working just as good but I didn't hear that before I bought em. I figured whatever its just money and ill try anything once. The cheap ones looked like they'd fall apart easy as there were some stone dust chlling in the unopened package.

Since I cannot afford to replace em ill try all the approaches listed and the one I read on some saltwater aquarium forum.

Thanks everyone. Still open to new ideas also for those who haven't left their methods. Much appreciated. Cheers!

Get you a 80 pack of cheap walmart "Equate" denture tablets (Polident knock-off). Pop 2 tablets in a glass and add your airstones, cleaned in 5 minutes, run under warm water and your done. At $4 for 80 tablets its cheap. Tablets also work decent on bongs and pipes if they are not completely trashed to start with

What is it like an oxidizer? I'd be happy to try them, just not sure whats in em.

Right now I got them soaking in 15cups of water and 4 cups of bleach solution. I first took the brillo side of a sponge and rran it under hot water and scrubbed them a bit.

Going to take em out of the solution tonight and boil em then let em sit to dry and run the air pump through em.

firsttimeARE said:

What is it like an oxidizer? I'd be happy to try them, just not sure whats in em.
.

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Taken from their site:
The effervescent action (Sodium Bicarbonate and Citric Acid) provides mechanical
cleaning action to loosen particles from the denture. The effervescent compounds
also reduce odor by neutralizing the by-products of bacteria. The enzyme
(everlace; Overnight only) breaks down and food proteins in plaque. The oxidants
(sodium perborate & potassium monopersulfate) remove stains and whiten the
denture teeth. The detergents (sodium polyphosphate & several others) clean
by removing virtually all the particles that were broken down and loosened by
the previously mentioned active ingredients.

The oxidizing agents are the primary stain removers, while the detergents and
the enzyme (Overnight only) also aid in the break down of food proteins. The
oxidizing agents act as a whitener/bleaching agent that removes the stains. The
detergents emulsify oily stains and keep them dispersed and suspended away from
the denture, and the enzyme breaks down stain particles to simple forms. The
detergents then remove the stain particles.

never done hydro but want to try sometime this year. wats the average start up cost for a small scale grow?? happy growing and as always, stay smokey

Superman44108 said:

never done hydro but want to try sometime this year. wats the average start up cost for a small scale grow?? happy growing and as always, stay smokey

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I'd say round 500 for a flood and drain

35 pots @ 1.5 per =53
3x3 table = 75
metering = 200 safe number to work with, i paid 170
i bought a res, you could get a trash barrel for 30 bucks thatd do the same job. mine was 120 with cover
air stones = 40 ( originally 55, but got discount) you can get a pair for like 5 dollars though.
tubing/fittings = 5 dollars
250gph pump = 20
2 outlet air pump = 10
i made a cover for the table for 12 dollars out of pvc and tarp https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/479456-12-diy-flood-table-cover.html
growstones were 20 for a bag
nutes were 60
ph control was 15
4.01 and 7.01 buffers and ppm buffer and probe cleaning solution were about 60 dollars all together from manufacturer(luckily for me hanna instruments main HQ is like 30 min from my house) these would be like 90 online.

so 545. i paid 90 more for the res, and 35 more for the stones. so personally i paid about 670.

All together I have about 3k into it. But thats like what I spend in a year on weed so the investment is worth it.

BatCave said:

Get you a 80 pack of cheap walmart "Equate" denture tablets (Polident knock-off). Pop 2 tablets in a glass and add your airstones, cleaned in 5 minutes, run under warm water and your done. At $4 for 80 tablets its cheap. Tablets also work decent on bongs and pipes if they are not completely trashed to start with

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Does this work?

Buy new ones cheap stones are great stones or just use the stones and rubber band or tie air line to stone and throwith back into bucket. Yue not throwing them away now buddy

anzohaze said:

Buy new ones cheap stones are great stones or just use the stones and rubber band or tie air line to stone and throwith back into bucket. Yue not throwing them away now buddy

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im gonna just use some toothbrushes then scrub them

Hygrozyme......

Just buy new ones

DarthBlazeAnthony said:

im gonna just use some toothbrushes then scrub them

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I have tried everything nothing works to bring a stone back to 100%. So after a while a stone is only 50% working as you burn up air pumps cause there working harder