Looking for a strong air pump

[fishmosy]

I find mine is pretty quiet, just a low hum like that from vibration. In comparison, the sponge filters I have are much noisier and as I'm assuming you be wanting to run some sponge filters, I wouldn't be worried too much about the noise from the pump. If you've ever been in a serious fish breeders fishroom, most noise is water bubbling rather than the air pump.

Then again, my air pump and most of my tanks are in a shed not my bedroom.....

[shrimpstan]

Just had a quick look & the ones that came up were piston air pumps' date=' blowers kind of look a bit like half a turbo & both of them are loud :encouragement:[/quote']

u mean the metal body ones on ****? so they are the piston ones? i figured they'd b loud or for the price everyone would have one... or 2 or 3 :P

thanks for ur help squig! :)

[shrimpstan]

I bought mine through LFS' date=' but I now know that they are wholesaled by an aquaculture distributor as we also buy the bigger models through work directly from the wholesaler. Unfortunately as a hobbyist you cant buy directly from the wholesaler but I can give you the info you need so that your LFS can order one in for you. There are a few models on the wholesalers website for sale up to 190LPM.[/quote']

yeah sweet mate do u think u could PM me any details including a rough price to compare.

thanks heaps for the help and recommendation! :)

[Squiggle]

u mean the metal body ones on ****? so they are the piston ones? i figured they'd b loud or for the price everyone would have one... or 2 or 3 :P

thanks for ur help squig! :)

Yeah they are piston pumps :encouragement: It all depends on the size, the small ones on e*B*a*y could do about 10-20 tanks but you can get bigger ones, you'll want something that does about 60-80L/min but if you get bigger then you'll be ready for when you get more tanks :victorious:

[shrimpstan]

Yeah they are piston pumps :encouragement: It all depends on the size' date=' the small ones on e*B*a*y could do about 10-20 tanks but you can get bigger ones, you'll want something that does about 60-80L/min but if you get bigger then you'll be ready for when you get more tanks :victorious:[/quote']

yeah bang on squig! thats the numbers i had in mind.. cos lets face it... as if there's not gonna be more tanks ;)

[Squiggle]

cos lets face it... as if there's not gonna be more tanks ;)

I hear that dude, I haven't even finished my rack & I'm already planning more tanks, hahaha :victorious:

[CNgo2006]

As I said as big as you can afford dude or you will regret it! Make sure you are comfortable with the noise, maybe check youtube for some reviews?

[shrimpstan]

As I said as big as you can afford dude or you will regret it! Make sure you are comfortable with the noise' date=' maybe check youtube for some reviews?[/quote']

yeah good idea. do u hear ur bubbles or the pump?

i did hear one over the weekend it was 70lph and was dead quiet.. it was $200 also :p

bad thing is all these names start sounding the same so i cant remember what brand it was!

[Squiggle]

I had a listen to my shrimp room last night while feeding & first of all I heard the water bubbling then the pump, the bubbling water is definitely the more dominant sound :encouragement:

[fishmosy]

If you do decide to go bigger than what you think you need right now (and thats probably a good idea), just make sure to dump the air you dont need. By that I mean have a large tap or a few small taps open that just vent air away. Putting too much back pressure on a pump is the quickest way to destroy the diaphragms (I've seen this happen first hand in the lab at work when someone had all the outlets shutoff and turned the air pump on).

You may need to spend some time fiddling with the outlets to find the pressure where all your filters run but you dont put too much pressure on the pump. A small pressure guage in your system may be benefical for this as some pump have max. or min. opperating pressures.

[Squiggle]

If you do decide to go bigger than what you think you need right now (and thats probably a good idea)' date=' just make sure to dump the air you dont need. By that I mean have a large tap or a few small taps open that just vent air away. Putting too much back pressure on a pump is the quickest way to destroy the diaphragms (I've seen this happen first hand in the lab at work when someone had all the outlets shutoff and turned the air pump on).

You may need to spend some time fiddling with the outlets to find the pressure where all your filters run but you dont put too much pressure on the pump. A small pressure guage in your system may be benefical for this as some pump have max. or min. opperating pressures.[/quote']

+1 Agree, good point Fishmossy :encouragement: I just kept adding taps until the filters I had running started to noticeably reduce & adjusted it back for maximum flow, I now have a couple of taps running at full & I put an airline on one to inflate the bags when I sell fish :victorious:

[Aquathumb]

do u know what the flow is n where i can look for these guys?

running the pump outside... genius!! :p

The flow on mine is 70lpm but you can get them upto 150lpm. I got a bargain price on mine payed $260 brand new. Normal price is about $400 I think (yes they are expensive but last forever so it works out cheaper in the end)

and yeah running it outside is working well so far. Im going to build a box for it with a hepa filter intalled on 1 wall just to make 100% sure the air I'm pumping into my tanks is clean.

[KiwiBigD]

I had a listen to my shrimp room last night while feeding & first of all I heard the water bubbling then the pump' date=' the bubbling water is definitely the more dominant sound :encouragement:[/quote']

Got to agree, unfortunately we had a few too many pumps with diaphragms and the garage underneath our bedroom is not insulated hence we can hear

the noise at night. So we've actually gone back to good old internal filters and so far so good, more importantly NO NOISE ;-) Makes the room really

pleasant to just chill back with a beer and enjoy now.

[shrimpstan]

I had a listen to my shrimp room last night while feeding & first of all I heard the water bubbling then the pump' date=' the bubbling water is definitely the more dominant sound :encouragement:[/quote']

yeah this is what i want to acheive! :)

do the air lines u leave open to bleed the pump make much noise?

[shrimpstan]

so i went to a LFS today n they said maybe an aqua *** air blower might do the trick.. does anyone know if these things are too noisy? me personally im not really a fan of the brand.

not too much choice in my local area :( kinda depressing how much shrimp orientated stuff i DIDN'T see today!! 3 shops n all i saw was one packet of hikari shrimp food!

it was one of the shop keepers opinion that piston air pumps would definitely be too loud. would that be about right?

the hunt continues ;)

p.s thanks guys for all the help and pointing me in the right directions!!! :encouragement:

[fishmosy]

yeah this is what i want to acheive! :)

do the air lines u leave open to bleed the pump make much noise?

They do, but a nice trick is to leave 1-2 metres of airline on the outlet and the noise disappears.

[Squiggle]

They do' date=' but a nice trick is to leave 1-2 metres of airline on the outlet and the noise disappears.[/quote']

+1 Agree, totally correct :victorious:

[shrimpstan]

They do' date=' but a nice trick is to leave 1-2 metres of airline on the outlet and the noise disappears.[/quote']Seems like u 2 are on the same page! :) its probably gonna take more time n effort but im probably goin to attempt to do an air system like u guys did.. if u thought I was asking alot of questions now just u wait and see.... ;)

[Squiggle]

Have a look at my DIY air system thread in the library to see how I did mine :victorious:

http://www.shrimpkeepersforum.com/forum/content.php/176-DIY-Air-system

[shrimpstan]

Have a look at my DIY air system thread in the library to see how I did mine :victorious:

http://www.shrimpkeepersforum.com/forum/content.php/176-DIY-Air-system

will do.. have done.. ur still gonna get hammered with questions though squiggle :p

[JonX]

What about the schego air pumps? Ive heard they are quality and quiet.

Ive bought a few $15 -$35 shitty aquamanta and alright stella aquaones but think I should have just bought one quality schego.

Anyone use schego?

[Squiggle]

I had a M2K2 & it was perfect for about 10yrs, then I sold it cause it didn't do the volume I needed, very good for 2-3 tanks but not much more :encouragement:

[JonX]

I had a M2K2 & it was perfect for about 10yrs' date=' then I sold it cause it didn't do the volume I needed, very good for 2-3 tanks but not much more :encouragement:[/quote']

I have 2 2foot divided tanks with 4 air driven sponge filters and 2 breeder boxes. Do you know a schego that would be suited?

[Squiggle]

I'm not sure but I think they only come the same size with one outlet, just the volume of air changes with the different models :victorious:

[JonX]

[h=2]Schego Prima Air Pump[/h]100 liters per hour

3 watts

[h=2]Schego Ideal Air Pump[/h]150 liters per hour

5 watts

[h=2]Schego Optimal Air Pump[/h]250 liters per hour

5 watts

[h=2]Schego M2K3 Air Pump[/h]350 liters per hour

5 watts

[h=2]Schego M2K3 Deluxe Air Pump[/h]

• With Potentiometer Control
  
• 350 litres per hour
  
• 5w