Diffusion stone issues

[glugglug]

I stored my diffusion stone in a ziplock bag after my last brew day. After use, I cleaned the stone and sanitized it, but it looked moldy today. I wiped it with a paper towel, and rinsed it off, careful not to touch it with my bare hands. Then I boiled it for 15 minutes. I believe in that time the stone absorbed some water, and now it's barely creating bubbles. I use an aquarium pump with a hepa filter, attached to stainless steel tube with the stone attached with a flare fitting.

How can I restore this diffusion stone to like new status, and for today, since I have the hepa filter, can I just go without the stone?

 

[Chrisbrewbeers]

I use pure oxygen with my stone but I have had it over a year with no problems keeping it in the small bag it came in top open. That got dirty so I moved to wrapping foil around it. I recently tried boiling it to sanitize as well and that started suspected problems. White scale on it and water in the line, both of which worry me. I don't have a good answer but my stone worked fine after boiling. My guesses are the hepa filter might clog or there wasn't enough air in ziplock bag for it to dry and mold grew.

 

[eadavis80]

I've had some diffusion stone issues over the years with the same setup as the OP. Here's what has worked for me: 1) I always start running my stone at the beginning of the brew day. I just let it sit in a jar of star san. That gives it several hours to get going and anything clogged in there usually works itself out by the time I have to pitch yeast. 2) Try running the stone with the aquarium pump into a pot of boiling water. That also seems to unclog it some as well. 3) I've also noticed sometimes the Hepa filters - after several uses - will get dirty or something and if I get a new Hepa filter it will fire up again like new as well. Try some of these and good luck. However, I'm not really that convinced the stone does much good anyhow. I dump my cooled wort through a fine metal strainer into a sanitized bucket. Then, I pour that bucket's contents into my sanitized Big Mouth. Between all that sloshing, I think I get pretty good oxygen in there some I'm not sure I even need to do the airstone, but I do anyhow...