How do I clean the crap off these air stones and the sides of my buckets. It’s very hard to get off. Salt buildup.
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Maybe lime scale remover. 
The best way to clean airstones depends on the type of clog. For general cleaning and disinfecting, a bleach solution (1 part bleach to 3 parts water) is effective. For hard water buildup, vinegar soaks are recommended. Peroxide or seltzer water can help with algae. After cleaning, thoroughly rinse and dry the airstone before reuse.
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Get some citric acid powder and add a few tablespoons to a boiling pot of water with the airstones. That’s what i do and it dissolve all the salts off the airstones. I usually boil them for about half an hour.
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You can leave them soak in the solution for a day or two… I like to run this in the system in between runs… I’ll run this to clean out the salts before I actually do a sterile cleaning with bleach.
Edit- lots of uses for this product as well. Good to have on hand for a lot of things. And you dilute this so a bottle will last quite a while.
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Would Acetic acid do it? Basically strong vinegar.
Yeah that should work too
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This is correct. I don’t boil the things, but I just let them soak.
Daniel Fernandez has also aid it’s primarily from the acidity. So you could likely use other acids too, like certain pH down products. I don’t remember the details, and I don’t measure the citric - but I should.
That said, I’d probably replace the air stones. And I hate air stones and wouldn’t use them anyways (instead, I’d make a diffuser from pvc or something, or use venturi and/or waterfall to introduce air).
Try some CLR but be careful some of those blue stones.I tried washing some like that in bleach and the stone practically disintegrated in my hands
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i soak mine in water and bleach, then rinse off with some water
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