I have been looking on line for ways to clean old air stones with many saying to soak in vinger, bleach with varying methods. I have recently gathered all my old clogged air stones, 60 varying in sizes and types, and decided to see if I could refurbish them rather than throwing them out. The procedure I used is as follows:

1. Rinse air stones in freshwater ( I used rainwater) lightly scrub off excess of built up dirt

2. Allow to dry

3. Boil in freshwater for 10 minutes

4. Soak in solution of 1 part household bleach to 3 parts fresh water for 24 hours

5. Remove from solution and place in a container of fresh water for 1 hour

Note: others suggest to connect to airline and bubble through for 5-10 min ( I had too many to keep changing every 10 minutes)

6. Drain water and refill with fresh water soaking for another 1/2 - 1 hour and add water treatment as stated on the water ager bottle used, this removes the bleach element that was used previously in step 4

7. Air Dry air stones completely once dry store for future use.

Note: others state to dry blowing through air via air pump (I think this is a waste of your time)

My result was good, all the stones I replaced within my tanks are running as good if not better than new. 

The above is probably not required as much as when we ran UGFs as most sponge filters create bubbles in their own chamber without the aid of airstones. 

Hope this proves helpful to others.

Edited June 24, 20169 yr by zn30

i always found they broke up when they are getting old though, so i never needed to clean, i had to buy new ones, as in you try to take the hose off and the head just popped off, or super fragile ect, maybe that was because i used them in salt water. but i thought it also happened in freshwater...

1 hour ago, perplex said:

i always found they broke up when they are getting old though, so i never needed to clean, i had to buy new ones, as in you try to take the hose off and the head just popped off, or super fragile ect, maybe that was because i used them in salt water. but i thought it also happened in freshwater...

I always cut the hose off with scissors at the end of the air stone connection because of what you say above they crumble. After they have dried out I get a Stanley knife and slice/cut away the remaining tube from the connection piece going into the air stone. This seems to save them from crumbling although I have still lost a few from crumbling or the connection piece falls out.

@zn30, if you have some photos to add to your first post, this would be a good one to promote into the library for reference.