How safe are air pumps ?

[MaloK]

The highest risk of water spills ?

Me... Doing a water change.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

My air pumps are all over the place, However, not one of them has a check valve on it. I have never had a tank push water back down an airline.

My central air power is always high up because I have to run lines to differen racks which have their own manifold for the each set of tanks. I also will hang an airpump above a tank. But this is for an under tanks only.

I use both plaasyic and silicon airline. The plastic gets stiff with time the silicone does not. I have similar issues with coonnecting them to the output, but I have a trick I use that helps greatly. The problem is that it is not all that hard to get the very initial part of the line into a nipple, it then stops. So, I take one of my tank scissors and making sure it is closed I push the tip into the air hos a bit, Then I open the scissor a bit which cause the hose end to flaree more open. It then slips well over the nipple.

All of the main lines out of a central pump had hose clamps on them to heep the pump to manifold connection solididly connected. But for the lines from the manifolds into the tanks does not use a clamp. Airline and manifolds are to small to use the clamps.

Most of my "floods" have been caused by my forgetting siphon is going, or I get sidetracked when punping water out of or into a tank. I have many epsoded of taking out 10 gallons into a 5 gallon bucket or refilling a tank so that it overflows. I hate waiting doing nothing while moving water in and out and will start to do something else. I then forget I have water running until I hear the sounds of ut hitting the floor.

All my lines are good, they do not leak back via any air system. By why would I need this since I have a much better way to flood my floors and stand etc. because I am pumping it out. I can make any flood go faster with my water pumps than your airlines can.

I have had smaller cheap pumps die, I have never had any of the three central DAPM geavy duty diaphagm pumps I got from Jehmso miss a beat in years.

 

[Magnum Man]

I had a spill last night... my hard water tank, has a 1/4 inch poly line from a saddle valve, before my house softener... I had 2 inches to fill the tank, & got side tracked, because of how long it takes to fill... until I heard it dripping on the floor... but that is just concrete basement floor, with a floor drain 3 feet from the tank... so I guess if I'm going to spill... that one is of least concern...