Has your O2 wand/stone gotten plugged?

[Kickass]

Ive recently gotten a used .5 micron O2 wand. I've never used one so it's tough for me to trouble shoot.

First, I boiled in H2O for 10 minutes prior to trying it out.

When I open the regulator nothing happens until it's about half way open. Then I feel a little O2 escape around the hose clamp that attached the tubing to the wand. If I open the regulator slightly passed that, I see little bubbles in the water glass that the stone is in.

I don't know if the hose clamp isn't creating a good seal or if the stone is plugged, causing the O2 to force its way passed the hose clamp.

Have any of you seen something similar?

 

[myndflyte]

I noticed that my diffusion stone was getting plugged with just soap and water so now I store it in rubbing alcohol. Soaking it in that seemed to clear everything out. Soak it in rubbing alcohol for 24 hours and see if that helps at all.

 

[OG-wan Kenobi]

This is what the fish tank guys recommend -

1. Rinse the air stone in fresh water, then lightly scrub off any excess build up off the outside. Allow the airstone to air dry completely.
2. Boil the stone in fresh water for ten minutes, and allow it to air dry again.
3. Soak the airstone in a solution of one part household bleach to three parts fresh water (1:3) for 24 hours. Bleach has the advantage of both cleaning the stone and also disinfecting it. Soak the stone for a full 24 hours, or two days if the stone was badly clogged.
4. Remove the stone from the bleach solution, then attach an airline from an air pump to the stone and place it in a container of fresh water, letting it run for five minutes. This will dilute and remove any residual bleach from the stone.
5. Remove the airstone from the fresh water and continue to let the air pump through the stone for 5 minutes to dry the inside pores. Allow the stone to completely air dry for 24 hours, then store for future use.

 

[MaxStout]

I've found that putting 2 clamps side-by-side helps a lot in preventing leaks. Replace that tubing from time to time. Tubing's cheap.

+1 to OG-wan's process.

 

[Kickass]

Thanks. I cinched the hose clamp down, opened the regulator and there's no flow at all.

I'll soak the stone rubbing alcohol and see if the frees it up.

 

[balrog]

I am wondering about something in the wand -- is it a stainless tube soldered to the stone?

 

[Kickass]

I believe it is. There's no nut or visible threads and I can't unscrew the two from each other

 

[balrog]

Now I'd want to say find tubing you can wrestle over the stone end and clamp uber-tight on the wand. Connect tubing to gas/air, fill wand with pbw solution or alcohol to soak and blow it out. Maybe only after doing the stone soaking/boiling so you're not pushing schmutz outside to in on the stone.