Silicone Airline Tubing
The hose that does not harden and pop off.
PVC airline goes stiff and yellow within a year in a warm room, and a stiff hose creeps off the barb. Silicone stays flexible, which is the whole difference.
Taxes calculated at checkout
- 2 m length, standard bore for pumps, stones and sponge filters
- Stays flexible instead of hardening like PVC
- Resists kinking behind the tank
- Safe in freshwater and marine
- No plasticiser smell out of the bag
Why you'll love it
Made for happy, healthy pets
Hardened tubing is a quiet failure
PVC stiffens with age and warmth, and a stiff hose slowly walks itself off the pump barb. You find out when the sponge filter has stopped and the tank has been unaerated overnight.
Kinks behind the tank are invisible
Airline runs down the back of a cabinet where nobody looks. Silicone springs back from a tight bend instead of holding the crease that stops the flow.
Two metres is the useful length
Enough to run from a pump on the floor up over the rim with slack for a check valve. Shorter coils force the pump onto the same surface as the tank, which is where vibration noise comes from.
Good fit if
- Replacing PVC that has hardened and started slipping
- Runs with tight bends behind a tank, where PVC kinks
- Marine as well as freshwater setups
- Anyone who has found a disconnected line in the morning
Look elsewhere if
- Your existing tubing is soft and holding perfectly well
- You need something rigid to hold a shape
- You want coloured tubing to hide against a background
Why PVC fails
PVC airline is soft because of plasticisers mixed into it, and those gradually migrate out. The tubing hardens, yellows and loses its grip on the barbs it is pushed onto, at which point a line can work loose over a few weeks without anything obviously changing.
The consequence is not obvious until it happens. A sponge filter with a disconnected airline stops filtering silently, and an air stone stops aerating, and in both cases the first sign is fish behaving oddly rather than an alarm. Warm rooms and warm tank hoods accelerate the whole process.
What silicone does differently
Silicone gets its flexibility from its own structure rather than from an additive, so there is nothing to leach out and it stays soft indefinitely. It grips barbs consistently for years, and it tolerates the warmth behind a hood without stiffening.
It also resists kinking, which matters more than it sounds. Airline behind a tank usually has to turn a tight corner between the pump and the rim, and a kinked PVC line restricts flow in a way that is easy to miss because the pump still sounds normal. Silicone takes a tighter radius before it closes.
Running it well
Keep the pump above the water line where you can, since that removes the siphon risk entirely. Where the pump has to sit below, fit a check valve in the line, because a power cut lets water run back down the tubing and into the pump, which ruins it.
Cut it with a sharp blade rather than scissors, which pinch the bore closed as they cut and leave a distorted end that does not seat properly. Leave a little slack rather than running it taut, so that moving the tank or the pump a few centimetres does not pull a connection apart.
Two metres covers a typical run from a pump on the floor or a nearby shelf up over the rim, with enough spare to reroute later. Buy the length rather than joining offcuts: every join is a barb that can leak air, and a slow leak halfway along shows up as weak bubbles that you then chase at the pump end.
In the box
Everything you need
- 2 m silicone airline tubing
How it works
Simple, from basket to doorstep
- 1
Browse
Shop by pet or category to find exactly what your cat or dog needs, no wading through thousands of listings.
- 2
Order
Check out securely with card, PayPal or one-tap Apple Pay & Google Pay. Free delivery over $59.
- 3
Delivered
Fast, tracked dispatch straight to your door, and a happier pet before you know it.
The details
Specifications
- Length
- 2 m
- Material
- Silicone
- Fits
- Air pumps, air stones, bubble and sponge filters
- Water
- Freshwater and marine
- Weight
- 35 g
Good questions
Before you buy
It is the standard 4 mm inside diameter that almost every hobby air pump, stone and sponge filter uses. If your pump takes 6 mm, this is not it.
If the pump sits below the water line, yes, and that is true of any airline. Without one, a power cut siphons tank water back down the hose into the pump.
Yes, with scissors. Cut square rather than at an angle so it seats properly on the barb.
It is standard aquarium airline bore, which fits ordinary pumps, air stones, bubble bars and sponge filters. Dip the end in hot water if it is a tight push onto the barb.
If the pump sits below the water line, yes. Silicone will not stop a siphon; only a one-way check valve does that, and without one a power cut can pull tank water into the pump.
Yes, with a sharp blade for a clean square end. Scissors pinch the bore as they cut and leave a distorted end that seats poorly on a barb.
Last reviewed August 30, 2026