Keeping your air stones clean is a crucial maintenance aspect of ensuring your hydroponics system runs effectively consistently.
That’s why it’s key to learn how to clean air stones for hydroponics in proper manner, and that’s what I will guide you in the form of this article.
Even if they seem clean, the tiny pores can become blocked and build up with hard-to-see gunk. The last thing you want is your whole system crashing down due to a silly routine check.
Thankfully, there is a way that you can get them cleaned up with some common household ingredients.
All you need is some household bleach, vinegar or hydrogen peroxide as well as some water, and your air stones will be clean and disinfected!
In this article, we’ll look at different ways to clean and some great tips you can implement whilst doing so.
Table of Contents
How to clean air stones for hydroponics (3 Methods Discussed)
There are multiple ingredients that you can use to clean your air stones.
They all work just as well as each other. Some are more easily available than others, so it will be a case of personal preference.
Let’s dive a bit deeper to know how to clean air stones for hydroponics with 3 different ingredients and how you use them to give your air stones a well-deserved cleanup.
Cleaning air stones with vinegar
Vinegar is not only extremely tasty in certain recipes, but it can also make a great cleaning agent. The acidic compound can remove built-up soap scum, any stubborn brines left by hard water deposits, and even glue from stickers.
Most staple pantries contain some kind of vinegar which is great in times like these. The easiest way to clean your air stones using vinegar is as follows.
- Carefully remove the air stones from the hydroponic reservoir tank.
- Give them a really good wash and rinse in water. Make sure to scrub them lightly over the whole outer casing.
- Create a solution using a 1:1 ratio. 1 part vinegar:1 part water. Submerge the air stones in the solution and allow them to soak for a minimum of 12 hours. This time frame is essential to the initial breakdown of the harder, more stubborn mineral deposits. If they don’t release from the stone at this point, you will likely need to create a stronger solution and give it another scrub. E.g., 2:1 (2 parts vinegar:1 part water)
- Once satisfied with the cleaning job, give the stones a good rinse-off and reinstall them in the new, clean state.
Cleaning air stones with hydrogen peroxide
Next up, we have hydrogen peroxide. The way that this stuff works are by oxidizing any organic form of life. In layman’s terms, it not only cleans but also kills germs by disinfecting the entire surface area.
It breaks up and releases both water and oxygen in the form of free radicals. These assist in the total cleaning process. Let’s look at how to use this product to clean your hydroponic air stones.
- Again, carefully remove the air stones from the hydroponic reservoir tank. They are usually pretty loose.
- Give them a really good rinse with running water. Try to scrub away any debris or scummy build-up with a gentle brush.
- Allow the air stones 5-10 mins to completely dry. They need to be dry for the next part to work properly.
- Create a 1:4 ratio solution of 3% H2O2 and water. (1 part 3% H2O2:4 parts water) Give them a wiggle around in a small to medium size lidded container. You want something that can easily fit the air stones and leave enough room for them to move around upon a light shaking.
- Add the air stones and other parts of your aeration system that you may wish to lean into the container filled with the solution. Let them soak for a minimum of 12 hours. This will allow the solution to have the chance to eat away any stubborn grime.
- Remove any soaking parts and give them a thorough rinse under running water. This is done properly to ensure any remnants of the solution are completely washed away from the parts.
- Give the stones enough time as it takes to dry out completely. Once so, it’s time to reinstall them into the reservoir tank.
- Run the pump for 10-15 mins with plain water before adding any nutrients to ensure all pores have been completely unclogged. This last step can help to blast out any remaining remnants.
Cleaning Air Stones with Bleach
Bleach is possibly the easiest ingredient to find as well as the cheapest. You can purchase it in most supermarkets, home depot, etc. Bleach works somewhat similarly to hydrogen peroxide, except it’s slightly less harsh.
This also means that it doesn’t have as strong an effect.
However, if regular maintenance is completed, bleach is an ideal candidate to use due to its smaller price tag and availability. Let’s look at the process required to use bleach to clean your hydroponic air stones.
- As always, carefully remove the air stones from the reservoir tank. You may need to fiddle around a bit to loosen up any hoses and/or tubing.
- Give them a bit of a scrub and try to remove any larger chunks of debris.
- Create a 1:3 ratio of bleach: water (1 part bleach:3 parts water) in a container big enough to hold the stones and allow a bit of space to move around when lightly shaken.
- Add the air stones and any other items you wish to clean into the solution and let them soak for a minimum of 12 hours. Give them a bit of a swirl now and then to allow the solution to move around and not become stagnant.
- After this period, remove the air stones and other parts from the solution and give them a good rinse under running water. This will help to remove any remnants of the bleach.
- Allow all pieces to dry out completely by placing them where they can air dry. This could take 3-24 hours. It depends on the weathering they can receive in the allotted time.
- Once you are satisfied that the air stones and other pieces are completely dry, reinstall the pump.
- Give the pump a run with just plain water for 10-15 mins to blast out any remaining holes that could still be slightly clogged.
- Fill the reservoir with nutrients and use the system as normal again.
How To Know If You Should Clean Air Stone for Hydroponics?
Air stones are used for a couple of really important purposes. Firstly, they deliver oxygen to the roots of the plants.
Without oxygen, the plants simply cannot grow, even if they do, they won’t grow effectively, and it’s just a lot of time and money wasted.
Furthermore, and equally important, is the air stone’s ability to help prevent pathogens from invading.
Once even one teeny tiny microscopic pathogen has the chance to spawn, it can create a whole civilization that will spread through your system and destroy all of your hard work.
So, ensuring that the air stone is maintained and in optimal working order is essential. How do you know when it’s time to clean it/them, though?
The best indicator is simply observing the way that they are cleaning. If the level of effectiveness begins to deteriorate, then that’s a sure sign that they are due for a good cleaning.
Depending on what you’re using to grow your plants, they can be blocked and covered by a range of particles and/or materials. These include coco coir, hemp fibers, rock wool, etc.
The performance will be the ultimate guide for you. Sometimes they may even seem clean, but the tiny pores become blocked and clogged. The more often this happens, the less lean your system will be.
How Often Should I Clean Air Stone For Hydroponics?
To answer this question, a few factors will need to be considered. Such as:
- Some areas don’t have clean, accessible water and can build up with various chemicals and minerals, including calcium lime deposits. In this case, you may need to clean your stones more frequently.
- You may be using a growing medium that sheds a lot of the time, causing the air stones to become more clogged than usual.
- The nutrients you are using may not be flushing properly, which can cause a build-up in your air stones.
Considering these factors, you would likely need to clean your air stones monthly. As long as you monitor how your system is reacting to them.
Furthermore, air stones should be changed over every 3-6 months.
By this stage, they will have been scrubbed more than enough times and won’t be able to be cleaned as effectively anymore.
Frequently Asked Questions (fAQs)
How long do air stones last?
Air stones in a hydroponic system generally last between 3 and 6 months. Of course, this will depend on the care taken to clean them and ensure that the system runs effectively. For example, keeping the growing medium from shedding into the tank and checking the water doesn’t contain high levels of blocking minerals.
How often should you change the air stone?
If an air stone can be cleaned and maintained as often as possible, it should last between 3-6 months. Ideally, you should give them a proper clean and scrub with either bleach, vinegar or hydrogen peroxide every 2-4 weeks to make sure they don’t build up with too much gunk and become blocked.
Do I need to soak air stones?
Yes, air stones should be removed from the tank, scrubbed, soaked in a vinegar/bleach/hydrogen peroxide solution, and rinsed and dried before reinstalling into their reservoir tank.
Are air stones necessary for hydroponics?
Air stones are unnecessary for certain hydroponics methods such as Ebb and flow or NFT(Nutrient film technique). Using them in the other more common methods, however, is the plant’s prime oxygen source. Oxygen is needed for faster growth and overall healthier plants.
Do air stones get clogged?
Air stones have tiny pores that need to be free to pump out optimal amounts of air. As these become blocked and/or clogged by mineral deposits and shedded growing medium, they simply won’t function to full capacity. It’s extremely important to perform routine maintenance to ensure the air stones are free to pump as much air as possible.
Conclusion
Cleaning the air stones in your hydroponic system doesn’t have to be a difficult task.
As long as you can read the signs of build-up, you can get them out as quickly as possible and clean them up so they can continue working to full capacity.
You may even want to purchase a few spare to switch over as you are cleaning one. We hope that this article has helped you understand the concept of cleaning your air stones.
We look forward to creating more content like this to assist your journey in the garden. Thanks for tuning in, and as always, happy growing!
