Stupid air pump ...

R

R.A.W.

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Mar 6, 2010
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Deepwater, Missouri
I bought a cheap air pump off ebay, stupid me. The thing sounds like a buzz saw in my room. I don't mind a hum, and I'm not naive enough to believe in silent, but when it's so loud that I can't sleep, it gets annoying.

So, I put the stupid thing on my floor, under a desk to help muffle it. Kinda helped.

Today, even though it was running, no bubbles were coming out. I happily turned it off :evil_lol: The tank is so heavily planted that the lone guppy should be fine. He looks okay, better even.

What happened? Did the air pump just break or is there too much space between the tank and the pump? Total, about 4' of line between tank and pump. Seems like a lot to me.

Pump is an AirTech 2KO for up to 10 gallons made 09/10. Tank has about 2 gallons. Pump is running a sponge filter.

I don't really care if it's broken or not. I plan on getting a Whisper. I just want to know if 4' between tank and pump will make a difference. The pump will also be hooked up to 4 other 1 gallon tanks.

Thanks,
RAW
 
Ive always noticed that if I hung my air pumps up with a wire it made them as silent as they were ever built to run.
 
247Plants said:
Ive always noticed that if I hung my air pumps up with a wire it made them as silent as they were ever built to run.
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I agree I put eye hooks underneath my stands andhang my air pumps from them I never even know there there unless I look at the bubles or look at the actual pump. I have two tanks in our bedroom and my wife would never alow it if it made any kind of noise lolim not even aloud to breath at night with out getting a dirty look for it
 
Unless the pump is truely horrendous (and there are some of those out there), most of the noise comes from the vibration it transfers to where ever it is resting. Sure rubber "feet" help, but they can still put up a racket. That wire suspension trick sounds like something I am going to steal.

The four foot may not be as much of an issue as the depth of the water. Sure, the 4' isn't helping but I bet if you raised the stone up the water column you would see increased out put.
 
It was working just fine with 4' connection and being connected to 4 tanks while being on the floor. Then, it just got worse and worse until it stopped altogether.

Like I said, I don't care if it ever works again and I'm not going to ever use it again. I'll buy a new one. But thanks for the advise.

I just want to know if a whisper air pump will have problems with 4' between the pump and the tank, while being on the floor, and running 5 small tanks (total 6g). Sorry I used bold but this is the only question I asked initially ....

Thanks,
RAW
 
starting off by saying the words "stupid air pump" are redundant, I hate air pumps and consider it a major triumph that after 2 yrs I have managed to arrange things so I do not have any running now at all. :)

however, if you just have to/want to run one, the Whisper was the best I found, noise-wise and output-wise. Ran 3 hoses off a single-output Whisper, with a splitter valve of course, hoses 3-4 ft long and one of them going to the bottom of a 29g. Meaning the latter was a minimum 4 ft from the floor up (actually longer allowing for slack in the line), then another 18 in from the top of the tank down to the bottom. I don't think you'll have any trouble with the setup you describe.

To power 5 you might want to get the next grade of Whisper up from this one, to get the 2 output holes. splitting 1 output 5 ways might be a bit too much for it--although on the other hand if the tanks are truly tiny you will probably be using the splitter valve to keep output on those lines to a low level. Personally I think it would work.

As far as noise goes, it does produce a small hum, but I sleep as well as work (on the phone) in the same room and never found it objectionable. The one it replaced, an Aqua-something from Walmart, probably did the best job for the longest time. However it got increasingly noisy over the year or so it ran although the air output stayed steady. at the end I had it wrapped in a 4 ft strip of packing batting, stuffed inside a styrofoam=lined box I received fish in, and in a closet. Finally couldn't stand it any more, thus the whisper.

imho and ymmv and all that. :)
 
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I don't think any air pump with one outlet is meant to be split five ways (the most I've seen gang valves for are four outlets). The air pump that has 2 outlets is a Whisper 60 or 100, but I also don't think you need that much air.

Why don't you email Tetra? Or you could call them:
http://www.tetra-fish.com/contactus.aspx

What are you planning on running? Ornaments, just an airstone? It makes a difference, I would include a description of each tank and what you are planning on powering.
 
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