air pump question

Dahlia

Dahlia

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Sep 3, 2003
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My daughter is getting 5 or 6 of those cheesy animated aerated ornaments for her 150 gallon high tank this Christmas. Is it possible for me to buy one larger airpump and use it to fuel all of the ornaments? Or even 2 larger ones that do half each? What else do I need to buy to direct the flow to more than one ornament? Or is it a better idea to just buy one pump per ornament? I don't normally use air pumps so I don't know as much about them. Thanks!
 
Most of the commercial air pumps sold for aquaria have only 1 or 2 outlets. There are air control kits, gang valves(allowing one inlet and multiple outlets), micro ball valves (for regulating air flow), and a bunch of elbows, fittings, etc. you can use to customize air delivery. The problem with a tank as deep as yours, is getting enough pressure to push the air down that far. Of course with multiple outlets, you'll need a pump that delivers a lot more pressure. I do recall seeing a chart for depth of tank/# of outlets/recommended psi for an air pump but I can't remember where. Someone must have useful info for you!;)

Aha! Doc. Foster&Smith catalog lists a chart for Tetratec Deep Water Pumps. The DW96-2 ($59.99 thier price) is suppose to run 10 air devices up to 36" deep. The DW96 ($34.99, only one outlet) runs 6 devices at 36" and 24" depth.

HTH
 
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beviking pretty well stated everything. :)

i would just like to add a vote for an airpump. i have a "profile pro gold 400" that works excellently but was fairly expensive. when i websearched it i was having problems finding it, but i found one that looks remarkably similar. the "rena air #400", big als sells it for $47.99 usa as ASWO#8628.

this thing is a monster, it's a bit larger than "normal" pumps, but extremely quiet and has 2 adjustable rate outlets.

http://www.finsnfurpetsupplies.com/renaair.html
http://www.goldfishconnection.com/shop/details.php?productId=12&catId=20

the links are just for reference, you can't "direct link" to big als. :(

edit: i bought mine to run a couple of 12" defuser/bubble walls and it worked great! you won't be disappointed, but it might be overkill. ;)
 
The animated air ornaments do not require much air pressure to operate, so a basic pump with dual outlets should be fine. I would get a plastic gang valve and set it up this way:

Take the dual outlets from the air pump and T them together so that a single airline goes into the tank. Be sure to use a check valve on this airline BTW.

Then use the gang valve inside the tank to connect all of the devices and bury the entire mess (gang valve and air lines) under the gravel.

This will allow you to have a single visible airline going into the tank. The one thing to consider is that some of the ornaments may need more pressure to operate than others. The gang valve will give you a bit more control over this.
 
I would be wary of a regular pump. My shelved dual outlet pump would just barely push air to the bottom of my 90 tall.
 
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