Freshwater

72
Part I: Aquarium Basics
There are two main types of air pump:
Vibrator pumps are great for the home aquarium because they are not
as expensive as piston pumps, and don’t require a whole lot of mechanical
maintenance. Vibrator pumps do have one big drawback: They can
be very noisy, especially if you purchase a poor-quality model.
Piston pumps are much more powerful than vibrator pumps and are
often used on very large or multiple systems. The disadvantage to
piston pumps is that they are hard to find, need to be oiled, and require
traps to keep oil from getting into the aquarium system.
Airstones and circulation
An airstone is a neat little tube-shaped artificial stone used to split the air
supplied by the pump into small bubbles. These bubbles help increase water
oxygenation. Airstones are generally made of ceramic or perforated woodbased
materials. Airstones can be short and round or tall and thin. The tall
stones tend to emit a finer stream of bubbles than the shorter ones do.
Airstones are very inexpensive, and should be replaced when they become
clogged.
You attach airstones to one side of standard air-line tubing, and attach the
other end of the tubing to the air pump. You can use airstones in undergravel
filter tubes, and corner filters or just put them in the tank.
To create a big bubble stream in your aquarium, you can purchase a bubble
disk. A bubble disk is a large airstone that looks like a plastic flying disc. You
simply connect the disk to an air pump with tubing and then slip it into the
tank. The disk makes a large stream of bubbles, which can aid in water circulation.
Bubble disks may become clogged with algae (usually this takes quite
some time), but you can clean them by rinsing them gently under clear water.
Fish love swimming in and out of the bubbles.
Try to stay away from bubble wands. These delicate little stones are shaped
like rods and usually have suction cups attached to the back of them so that
they can be mounted on glass. The problem with bubble wands is that they
can become clogged and stop functioning quite quickly. Bubble wands break
easily, so you may end up trashing half the decorations in your tank trying to
remove one for cleaning.