air stones in saltwater aquariums???

FTR, I've always used either a glass cover or full hood on all my tanks. Just need to ensure that it's not airtight, and keep it clean.
I suppose one may have issues with trapped heat if they have MH lights too close or don't run AC in the summer, but I've never experienced any problems with gas exchange or light penetration.

 

If you have a sump you will get plenty of gas exchange there ..
The summer my tank is open .The winter its sealed up ..

 

I did try glass tops early on, they got dirty so easily and I felt it affected the light exchange and I grow lots of coral(as I'm sure those that use them probably do too. Early on I saw many others reefers tanks that had no tops, and nixed mine too. I don't even have any for my new 180.
As far as some things seem to go in this hobby, I think the glass covers could probably go either way, and I do understand that it is jumper protection also- shich is a positive thing.
Back to the airstone in the DT however- the microbubbles it produces on top would be a lot of potential salt creep/mess.

 

I don't have a sump at the moment, but i do plan on upgrading from my current 55 to a 90gal soon, and then using my 55 as a sump/refugium.

I'm just thinking of putting one small stone in, not alot of them, and i clean my glass tops weekly when i do water changes. By cleaning off the excess salt weekly, would salt creep still be an issue? I really don't have much evaporation at all, I've literally only topped off 3 gal in 6 months.

 

sounds like an old myth, IMO. When my gf had her tank as a FOWL, she had a bubble line back behind her rocks for a couple years. No fish issues

 

Well you can tell us if salt creep is an issue then.
Definitely not doing any harm to the fish.

 

Like one of those "bubble wand" things? Did she end up having to clean the tops frequently?

 

It'll be a coupe weeks before i do this.
If it does no harm to the fish, great! I guess I'll try it out, and if salt creep becomes an issue, I'll remove it I'm sure I'll know pretty soon after i do it.

 

yeah, the flexible kind. At that time, she was using glass tops and they needed cleaned often, but more due to the condensation that built up on the underside and the light on the other side....

 

Azoo and a few others used to sell air pumps that have both batteries and 120v AC plugs. In normal operation they stay plugged into the wall and remain off but when power goes off they kick on under battery power. I have seen others recently that run continously on 120v then switch to battery but the old ones were off until needed.