Perfect-A-Flo Undergravel Filters Airstone

[RichardChen]

I have a 125 gallon long cichlid community tank. There are two eheim 2217 canisters on both corners and two plates of PAF UGF in the middle. Each plate i cap one and use two lift tubes. Both tubes on the same plate share one whisper 40 air pump.

When I first ran the air pumps 4 months ago, it made a lot of bubbles. now only little bubbles came out. Each time I changed the water, I cleaned the airstones by brushing the exterior. So far the water is clear but I am worry that there is not enough air flow for the ugf. I perfer air pumps to underwater powerheads because powerheads generate too much heat.

Here are my questions,
1. Do I have to have airstones to run the ugf?
2. How do I clean the airstones properly?
3. Should I replace the airstones came with the ugf with other airstones?
4. Should I buy two more whisper 40 pumps so each lift tube has its own?
5. Any other suggestions are welcome.

Thank you in advance.

[Mzungu]

1. Not necessarily. Try removing the airstones and see if you like how that works. At work, I have both setups - UGFs with airstones and without.

2. You can try taking them out and running water over them from the tap.

3. Definitely a good idea to replace airstones every few months. They just don't work as well as time goes by; they get clogged with gunk, fall apart, etc.

4. Buying more air pumps would also help the flow, but if you say that at first there were a lot of bubbles, it's probably more of an issue with dirty/old airstones or something else...

5. Are you using just airline tubing running from the air pump to the airstones? Or are you using rigid tubing in the lift tubes? Check to see if your tubing is clean, as well, as sometimes older tubing can get dirty/clogged, and even older stuff will harden and could have permanent kinks.

Hope this helps.

[Mzungu]

P.S. If you are using rigid tubing in the lift pumps, try this: Remove the tubing from the lift tubes, remove the airstone, and while holding the top of the rigid tubing, flick is against something hard - like the wall, or the sink, or something you don't mind getting dirty. Sometimes gunk gets stuck on the ends of the rigid tubing and inhibits air flow.

[TexmexVin590]

[QUOTE=Mzungu;516235]P.S. If you are using rigid tubing in the lift pumps, try this: If you have an air compressor then shoot air through it's much better than beating it up.

[Zebvance]

I had a few of these pumps and ran it no the same problem. I just kept returning them, my guess is if you look on the bottom of them
There is a filter where the air intake is. It usually with this pump gets clogged with dust and other things. Check that.

[RichardChen]

All right. I have both airline tubing and rigid tubing and a back-flow preventer in between. I will clean the rigid tube and airstones as you suggested and see how it goes. Thank you for the answers.

[psiebenshuh]

Perfect-A-Flo Undergravel Filters Airstone

I found this topic when I did a google search to find an answer to the same question. I was trying to decide if I should buy new airstones every couple of months or what. I ended up taking a pin and putting 8 holes in the existing airstones, and it worked great. I got a "puff" of debris when I placed the downtubes back in the UGF, so you can tell the circulation is working well.

Should have done this months ago. If you consider the airstone to have 4 "sides", I put a hole high and low on each side. If they get clogged in a couple of months, I can just do it again. Looks better than just taking the airstone off.