Huge Air Pump.....

[Rorie]

Just now i have six normal air pumps, hittig about 100 to 300l/h each. They are all hooked up to a 22mm overflow pipe to carry the air. From there, i then split it off using a manafold. That way, when i need to take off an additional line, there is little impact on the filters already running.....unlike when i have them all running seperatly. not to mention the 100 lines i had going all over the place.

Well, i am thinking that although this works well, having six air pumps is not that cost/energy efficient. I was at a breeder who had a HUGE (well, about 1 foot long, by half a foot tall) pump which he had linked into the same system as i now have......but where would i get one of these mamoth pumps? I imagine it would need to do 1,000 + l/h.

thanks

 

[Cooper2085]

I think there is one called a hi-blow 80 or something.

 

[fishguy2727]

I would get one of the pondmaster air pumps manufactured by Danner. They are made for fish rooms and ponds and are unbelievably quiet. They have multiple sizes and you should be able to easily get one for your whole system.

 

[Tolak]

Pondmasters are reliable & quiet, Alita is another good one.

 

[Rorie]

ok, any idea where i'd get one in the UK? Only US websites coming up

 

[Tolak]

http/www.koi-krazy.co.uk/alita.htm

Try searching for pond air pumps, as this is what they are often used for.

 

[Rorie]

Thanks for the link!

I just looked and saw 50l/min....i thought that is not very much, i am sure my tetratec pump does about 300! Until i realised my tetratec is 300l/hour, which is about 5l/min haha

 

[raptorrex]

Thanks for the link!

I just looked and saw 50l/min....i thought that is not very much, i am sure my tetratec pump does about 300! Until i realised my tetratec is 300l/hour, which is about 5l/min haha

I think you will find that's LPH, not LPM as on the Pondmaster.

tetratec = 300lph
Pondmaster =3000lph.which is 10 times the flow.

 

[Tolak]

Just for a ballpark reference, each air driven filter needs about 1LPM at 2PSI. I've got a Pondmaster 20 as a backup, and having run half a dozen air driven filters while bleeding off a ton of air I'm sure it would run 20 filters. My fishroom has an Alita AL-80, which will easily run 80 filters.

Your smaller air pumps, Tetratec, Whisper & such put out about 1.2PSI, more pressure means you can use it in deeper water applications.

 

[Rorie]

You see thats one of the problems i have just now. Got 4 tanks running, each with a couple air filters each, and then a few brine shrimp hatcheries etc. Last night i hooked up the 5th tank, which is furthest away. Even with 4 of the outlets going to the one sponge filter, it would only trickle the water out! All the others have one line each. There is just not enough pressure to get it going. I had to disconnect one of the pumps to hook up that one directly - totally defeating the purpose of me initially hooking them all up together!

 

[fishguy2727]

How big is the pipe that connects them all?

 

[Rorie]

5 air pumps go into a 22mm pipe. This then stops at a manifold where i have normal airline tubes coming off going to each filter. This works well. Other than the one tank which needs a 1.5m long airline to get to the filter. This one just wont get enough air - it makes sense that there is not enough pressure to get the air that extra distance....

 

[Tolak]

With larger applications you create a closed loop, this helps to equal out the pressure around the room. Often with a larger system you can oversize the pump a bit, put a bleed at the end of the line, this will even out the pressure without making a loop.

 

[raptorrex]

With larger applications you create a closed loop, this helps to equal out the pressure around the room. Often with a larger system you can oversize the pump a bit, put a bleed at the end of the line, this will even out the pressure without making a loop.

i was thinking that too. unless its closed, there will be parts of the system where airflow round the system will be unequal. you end up with one tube blowing down another, as opposed to the two blowing together.
err, if you see what i mean .