[Wet Thumb Forum]-looking for an air pump and water pump - DIY Aquarium Projects

EDGE · 06-09-2003, 04:39 AM

I am going to be settting up a fish room in the next couple months. I need some info on the basic hardware. I am looking for something that will not use up a lot of electricity and it is fairly quiet.

I am not sure how much air/water pump power I would need to power the room. What would be a way to calculate that?

water and air will be traveling 7ft vertically.
all of them would probably travel around 100 ft of piping total for all layers of the stand.

75 Gal, 3 WPG PC 10 hour, pressurize co2 /w controller 1 bps, Fluval 404, ph 6.8
A Canadian's Plant Traders website

EDGE · 06-09-2003, 04:39 AM

I am going to be settting up a fish room in the next couple months. I need some info on the basic hardware. I am looking for something that will not use up a lot of electricity and it is fairly quiet.

I am not sure how much air/water pump power I would need to power the room. What would be a way to calculate that?

water and air will be traveling 7ft vertically.
all of them would probably travel around 100 ft of piping total for all layers of the stand.

75 Gal, 3 WPG PC 10 hour, pressurize co2 /w controller 1 bps, Fluval 404, ph 6.8
A Canadian's Plant Traders website

JamesHoftiezer · 06-09-2003, 11:26 AM

Might be helpful if you could provide the total(max) gallons you will have or the desired flow rates.

James Hoftiezer

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Justin Fournier · 06-09-2003, 03:42 PM

For the amount of air your looking for, you may need to look at Hagen's "The Pump". Up here in Canada they were recently discontinued, and very expensive. You may find a small electric air compressor from Home Depot is a more realistic option. This is what many people around here do that do not want a central filtration system. Out of curiosity, why do you plan to do air and water? IMO a central filtration system using UV sterilization is a better option then UG/sponge filters.

EDGE · 06-09-2003, 04:58 PM

I had considered going with central uv sterilization, but it isway too costly at the moment. I may use it in the future though.

James: max gallon of water? approx 1500 gallon.
traveling distance approx 80 ft total of pipes. 7 ft in the air. 40-50 sponge filter

same goes for water pumps as well 80ft of pipe.

There is a store near my place selling the pump @

model 20 for 318 c$
model 40 for 360 c$
model 80 for 480 c$
model 100 for 720 c$
model 200 for 990 c$

75 Gal, 3 WPG PC 10 hour, pressurize co2 /w controller 1 bps, Fluval 404, ph 6.8
A Canadian's Plant Traders website

[This message was edited by EDGE on Mon June 09 2003 at 08:22 PM.]

Justin Fournier · 06-09-2003, 05:24 PM

Edge,

Like I said, seriously expensive. They are rated by number of 10gallon tanks they can power. However using them in our fish room, consider them closer to 1/4 of thier rating if using 1/2 pvc. The larger the diameter the pvc the lower the number of thanks they can do.

The UV sterilizer you would need for 1500g would depend on the purpose. You would want a higher wattage and slower flow rate for pathogens. I think you could run a 25W on this amount of water safely, if you use a good flow rate.

EDGE · 06-09-2003, 07:19 PM

Define good flow rate. slow or fast?

I am setting up mainly for discus. Prefer to use air since they use up a lot of o2 at high temp

Not to mention the sump will have to be fairly large to compensate for the large amount of water. The water pump will have to be 3000 gph just to cycle the water twice in an hour.

How do I calculate how much power I would need from an air compressor for a 3/4" to 1" pipe?

75 Gal, 3 WPG PC 10 hour, pressurize co2 /w controller 1 bps, Fluval 404, ph 6.8
A Canadian's Plant Traders website

Justin Fournier · 06-10-2003, 08:40 PM

Air power I forget exactly how to calculate air power, but most people grab a air compressor, and connect a hose to the PVC, and the compressor will automatically keep the pressure to what ever you regulate it to. Look around the net and I am sure you will find someone with a setup you can look into.

IMO the best discus setup I ever saw did not even include filters, but a constant supply of fresh water being pumped into the system, and a constant supply leaving. Almost an open water system! This guy had discus the size of diner plates. He had about a 1000g system, maybe smaller and it looke dlike he turned over the water about 4 or 5 times a day, judging by the amount of RO water he had being produced. It was really neat. Albiet expensive!

06-11-2003, 07:39 AM

EDGE,

This is my local breeding supplier. I talked to Ghori, who has a fishroom w/ ~20x10G tank and some 2.5G, he using the smallest Model #LPH26 on all those tank. He mentioned that he still could used on few more tanks.

Linear Piston Air Compressors

Join as at www.njas.net

EDGE · 06-13-2003, 05:17 PM

The rating for hagen 'the pump' is similar as well. Both of them goes by how many stones a pump can handle. What I am not sure is the traveling distance in a 3/4" pvc pipe. I will need it to run around 80 ft of pipe or have it on 40 ft of pipe /w 3ft airline tube going to lower level stand.

I talked to the lfs the other day and he said 'the pump' is being replace by hagen 'high blow'. That is why the pump is discontinue.

I was thinking of the 24 hour system before, but I just can't find myself using this much water a day with the restriction of usage in the city.

How about water pump? How much gph would I need to power the water up 7+ ft in the air and through 80 ft of 3/4" pipe?

75 Gal, 3 WPG PC 10 hour, pressurize co2 /w controller 1 bps, Fluval 404, ph 6.8
A Canadian's Plant Traders website