hi folks, been using a rena air 100 air stone pump with one air stone on the end, trouble is after 6 weeks the thing is broke, inside looks all rusty and stopped working, want to get a replacement and hoping someone can give me a good make, prefferably I want about 2-3 airstones which can attach, want to airate them nutes in my 80 litre tank.

Any suggestions as to where to look or what to buy?



Thankies.

If noise isn't too much of an issue, get one of those piston pumps.
Fecking marvellous they are..........mucho air!

Thanks matey, i want the tank to bubble like hot soup at boiling point, noise is a slight issue and my last one used to vibrate on the floor, could hear it through the ceiling .

The piston pumps knock out a lot of air potsmoker.....so if it is boiling soup you want, it will do the job nicely
There is a trade off with the noise, but you can control this by hanging the pump on bungee cords
There are a few different sizes available too.

ATB

Thanks matey, any idea of a make i should be looking for, got an 80 litre tank so not sure on size needed, any help there would be great.

The ones I have are made by Hailea (I think thats how you spell it).
A well known auction site is about the best place.
I can't help you with size tbh......but they start at around the 70 litres per minute mark.

Thanks matey going to go have a mooch around see what i find.

I found this that looks quite good.

The Hydor Ario Turbo Air Pump is a revolutionary new item from Hydor. The new Ario eliminates all the common problems associated with traditional air pumps.

The Ario is virtually silent; all you hear are the bubbles! There are no diaphragms to break or wear out. There is no reduction in pressure due to clogged air stones. There is no need for check valves.

The amount of air can be controlled by the air control valve. Additional features include low power consumption and maximum safety provided by thermal protection against overheating. No Airstones or tubing required.

Click to view attachment

Product Size Price
Hydor Ario 1 10-50 litres/hour £ 12.90
Hydor Ario 2 50-100 litres/hour £ 14.95
Hydor Ario 3 100-150 litres/hour £ 19.50
Hydor Ario 4 150-300 litres/hour £ 22.50

Gonna keep looking but sounds interesting, cheap to.

potsmoker,
I don't think those pumps will be powerful enough........they are putting out 10-300 litres per hour, whereas the piston pumps are doing 70, 90, 120 litres per minute

K matey, gonna get a piston pump like yours then.

Bollox!!

I've just ordered one of these - thought they sounded rover's nuts but didn't realise it was per hour - thought it sounded too good t be true. I got the 300l one so thats only 5L per minute. I do use hydrogen peroxide though so that should help. I'll have a look at some of the piston pumps, thanks Fresh Air Inspector

Is there anyway to calculate the pump needed to deliver oxygen to the tank, can you overdo the oxygen applied to the nutrient solution tank.

The reason i asked is the last time i used airation in the tank it was left close to the pump and blocked the filter due to very fine mesh filter and bubbles created from the airation blocked the filter and hence stops the drip feeds from flowing.

I was thinking something like 45 per minute in a 90 litre tank, something hopefully with an adjuster to lower or raise it depending on problem listed above.

Was kinda hoping there was some guide or something to make sure you get the most out of airation of nutes to add more benifit to oxygenation of the tank.

I think it's just the more oxygen to the roots the better. I've think it's ideal to have a 90L / minute pump for a 90 litre tank but thats an assumption so could be way more than you need. a 45l air pump in a 100L tank is still a lot of air so I think that would be pretty good. If you want to add more oxygen you could look at adding hydrogen peroxide as I mentioned above but this needs to be done on a daily basis.

I'd be interested to know if there is a maximum amount of oxygen you can get into H20 and if there is a max the roots can use if there's a boff about.

Dont forget the amount of dissolved oxygen in water is tempreture dependant, 15-18C is optimum

Click to view attachment

Doesn't that chart suggest that the colder it is the more saturated the oxygen can become? It looks to me as if at 5 degrees C you will have a saturation level of 13 (what is this measured in?)

Also if 15-18 C is optimum for oxygen saturation that leads on to the next question. What is the optimum temperature for the uptake of nutrients for the roots?

Yes that is so, the cooler the better. The DO is measured in mg/l

I dont know the answer to your second question, but would like to know.

found this with a hunt around on google:

Hi, and for what it's worth.
I looked at the hailea air compreser...I could not belive how cheep they were so I rang up one of the aquariam shops and asked the question....how good are they?
I was told very good if they were out side but to noisey to be indoors.
The Hydor pump cost me £16 and I bought this as a stand buy, you put the pump in the water. It has a breathing tube that will suck air down to 30" max.
I bought a Hailea ACO 9810 that runs 4 6" stones with ease

Keep your air pump outside your growing area . . . A, humiditiy wont get to it B, it sucks in cool air instead of room temperature air .

Hiya..

I had probs with the hydor, it's a deep hummer, especially if there's more than one.
Because the pump vibrates (albeit slight) in the water, the bucket resonates and hums through the house.

Found that hanging the external twin output pumps and using both outputs for one 55ltr tub is much quieter.

PS. even the airstone sitting directly on the tank bottom can still hum so if poss sit tub on a foam pad and experiment with different foam densities till it's dampened sufficiently.

Good luck
FFC