Air Equipment, Necessary, Options, Etc.

[Punkrulz]

Hey guys,

I have a 10 gallon tank that I have begun to take a lot of pride in. Personally it is no where near where I want it, but hey it's my latest project. Today I experienced a real fish store compared to a standard pet store, and I was loving it. We previously had two 4" long "stones" that with air would push bubbles out. Overtime, they began to get some strange spots on them, and the bubbles would not be able to blow out. While at the new store, I bought a 15" bubble curtain...

I was also a victim of impulse buying, purchasing the fish an ornament to hide in, as well as another air ornament. I have one of the Tetra Whisper 10gal Air Pumps. I have some hose, a one way valve, more hose, a splitter that goes to the ornament, and also the air curtain. The ornament works fine, but the bubble curtain does not. I removed the one way filter that was going to the air curtain passed the splitter, thinking that was it, however still nothing. I note that when I put a kink in the hose going to the air decoration, the air filter begins to work.

Is there anything more that I can do to maybe boost the pressure, so that I could operate both devices off of this one pump? Or will simply upgrading to possibly the 20gal (thankfully these pumps are cheap) be able to accommodate what I'm looking for?

Do fish have problems with devices such as these with the decoration?

 

[rdd1952]

Airpumps only have so much capacity. There is generally information on the box that tells how many airstones for the depth. I have found them to be less than accurate and usully won't handle as many as the info says. About the only way to run everything you have will be to upgrade to a larger airpump or get a second one and run the curtain off one and the ornament off the other. Of course, airstones & curtains really aren't necessary and in most cases are purely ornamental. As long as there is some surface aggitation you should have plenty of O2 in the water.

 

[Punkrulz]

Airpumps only have so much capacity. There is generally information on the box that tells how many airstones for the depth. I have found them to be less than accurate and usully won't handle as many as the info says. About the only way to run everything you have will be to upgrade to a larger airpump or get a second one and run the curtain off one and the ornament off the other. Of course, airstones & curtains really aren't necessary and in most cases are purely ornamental. As long as there is some surface aggitation you should have plenty of O2 in the water.

Thanks RDD. I think that since that the airpumps are cheap, I will upgrade... I'm just not sure if I should go one step up or two. I don't intend on adding any more devices, just the deco and the curtain. I do have surface agitation via my filter fortunately. I've just been trying to find ways to make my tank look better... I'll try to get a picture when I can.

 

[rdd1952]

Just beware of cheap airpumps. Cheap usually equals noisy. I have Rena airpumps which are a little more expensive but are also dead quiet.