Po Man's Bubble Curtain

[Iron Man]

Its not that I need to save the few bucks that it probably would but I thought of it anyway as it seems to have the possibility of allowing a "controlled" bubble curtain across the back of my 55 (US) gallon tank, and not just that.

What I originally was going to do, and have done before, is taking the longest bubble curtain they sell in the store and connecting that with their connectors to other bubble curtains......and hooking up airline tubing at both ends to push the air through. I has worked great before but doesn't have the potential of what I thought of next.

I came up with the idea of just punching pin holes in regular airline tubing. Then taking those suctions cups they sell for airline tubing, and using those to snake the tubing in anyway I like on the bottom of the tank...so that I have bubbles where I want them throughout the tank instead of just across the rear in a flat line.

For instance I could have a "gysor" in the corner on the back right and then a few little holes for a few bubbles across the back, and maybe reaching out torwards the middle in a few places, and then say another "gysor" underneath some broken pottery more to the left of the center of the tank. So basically I have bubbles coming up mysteriously (but in a controlled way) in places out of the sand and no visible airline tubing accept on one corner behind a large plant and filter tube (Eheim).

That's just an example.

What do you guys think?

 

[Iron Man]

Well I wondered if "pinholes" would be big enough (as the rubber might just seal back up after sticking it with a small needle) so I thought I could test the holes before I actually "install" the thing under the sand (which I know will take work as the sand is already in the tank). If not I could open them up as much as needed for what I wanted.

I don't want something like one of those bendable curtains as it would be TOO uniform. Also, as far as being "fine" I'm definately not looking for that, as that causes too many micro bubbles all throughout the tank anyway and I really hate that.

I've also been thinking about the back and usually having a uniform curtain back there. Maybe that's not what I want at all.

Accept for a couple of "gysors", I want it to be calm and random, with one or two bubbles coming up here and there all over the tank. So what you were talking about is probably closer to what I'm looking for.

 

[juwelfan]

How did you get on iron man?

I'm looking into installing a bubble curtain myself, but have not decided what pump and tube i need.


oh and do fish behave any different around the bubbles? i.e. do they avoid them or the air of sand their coming out from?

 

[samyboy]

ive got one of the long blue airstones hidden under rocks its very uneven loads coming out the ends and not much around it

fish dont seem to mind the bubble the plec will suck onto the tank wall they go up