Air Pump

[Maxta]

Would an air pump be okay in a 10 gallon (US) tank.

My plans are to get the smallest/least powerful i can get from a LFS, and buy a small air block, and have the settings on low, with the block being inside my rock cave so the bubbles come out of one of the holes.

Would this be okay? Or cause to much gas change in the tank or whatever?

Thanks.

 

[ox5477]

What? The only reason i could think that gas exchange would be a problem is if your tank is heavily planted and your injecting CO2 into the tank in which you wouldn't want to just release all the CO2 you injected out into the air. For a normal tank with either a few real plants or fake plants and fish, have as much water movement as you want. Its a plus really as the more oxygen in the water, the easier your fish breathe and the happier they are. Like if you go to the top of a mountain, you can live, but the being hard to breathe makes it harder to live.

If you don't care about the bubbles too, you can always buy a little small powerhead (really not worth the money if you ask me), and just use that to move the surface of the water around and this will do the same as a air pump would. The air coming out of the pump never injects into the water. It mearlybreaks the surface to allow for CO2 to be released and O2 to be injected through normal diffusion. So either method will help inject O2 into the tank

 

[rdd1952]

Be careful getting something that isn't very powerful if you are going to have the airstone/block on the bottom. The deeper it is, the more power you need to make it work. Be sure to read the outside of the box and make sure that it will work for the number of airstones you need and the depth of your tank. And even that may not be enough. Some of them don't work quite as well as they say (imagine that). Also, don't go for the cheapest one either unless you don't mind a lot of noise. Some can be bad. I have Renas and they are dead quiet.

 

[faithless1294]

ye a air pump should be fine i quite like the wall stones i think it adds to the motion of the tank and fish. and i agree with rdd dont go for the cheapeast they seem to be very noisey some are ok but not worth the risk unless its like £1.

 

[Iron Man]

Whisper is almost dead silent and pretty powerful. I'm using their 30-60 on my 55 gallon with lots of airline, check valve, control valve, and bubble wand on the bottom of the tank. I also had it powering an opening treasure chest and had to turn the setting down for that one.

Whispers are a few more bucks than the others but they are more than worth it.

 

[chr15_8]

Be careful getting something that isn't very powerful if you are going to have the airstone/block on the bottom. The deeper it is, the more power you need to make it work. Be sure to read the outside of the box and make sure that it will work for the number of airstones you need and the depth of your tank. And even that may not be enough. Some of them don't work quite as well as they say (imagine that). Also, don't go for the cheapest one either unless you don't mind a lot of noise. Some can be bad. I have Renas and they are dead quiet.

i have to agree with the rena's they are really quite and worth the bit more (it was in my bedroom so it needed to be quite and you can hardly hear it at night

 

[Maxta]

Well its only for my small 10 gallon tank which is 30cm deap. I have four real plants in, none fake. Also not injecting C02 either. As you can see by this picture:

I plan to keep the pump in my desk to keep noise to minimum, trail the tubing down the heater and into the sand (neat and tidy) with the other end popping up under my ornament near a small hole for the bubbles to come out. Which reminds me to ask this question.

The bloke in the fish shop said itd be okay to have the pump below our tank, and to run the tubing up the back of the tank and down into it to the bottom into the airstone. Yes it works. But when we got home and opened the instructions, it said to keep the pump above the tank. Now is this neccessary?

ATM during daytime i have my pump near the water surface so that it splashes down on the water creating bubbles etc. But at night i just cannot tolerate the noise since its in my room and a meter if that from my bed (small room). Im merely after a one for asethetic purposes, and to make living for the the fish as comfortable as possible.

Yeah its just my dad bought one and its kinda noisy, itd peave me if i had to listen to that all day, but the LFS he bought it from had different power ones, like the amount of LPH it pumped, thus i believed that since my tanks only small i wouldnt need a powerful one like my dads which is in the big tank. He also has an airstone that is about 10-12cm (LIKE THIS: CLICK HERE), and i went into a different shop the other day and they had more variety, different sized ones. I was after a small cube one which they had and was about 3cm each way or something even like this CLICK HERE

Thanks for the info.

PS. Do you mean these type of rena air pumps RDD/chris: CLICK HERE

Suitable for aquariums upto 50 litres, which should do me. Just need confirmation this is the exact type/models of rena pump you guys were on about. Dont want it being noisy.

 

[chr15_8]

all my air pumps (well currently 1 but ive had ones for another 2 tanks) are below my desk/cupboard. just make sure you fit a non return valve/one way valve.

so if you have a powercut water dont flow back into you air pump. when the power turns on it will go bang

if im wrong in the slightest im sure someone will correct me

edit: yes thats the air pump but mines a little bigger (rena air 100) i got it about a year+ ago and it was alot more than that - basicly very cheap price there

 

[Maxta]

Thanks.

Is the non return valve a little plastic thing with an arrow on that you fit to each tube coming out of the output. I assume they will come with a Rena pump, my dads did (not sure of the brand though).

 

[chr15_8]

Thanks.

Is the non return valve a little plastic thing with an arrow on that you fit to each tube coming out of the output. I assume they will come with a Rena pump, my dads did (not sure of the brand though).

not a problem

yep if you blow into it you will only be able to do it one way and not the other

chris

 

[Iron Man]

Cute tank!

Yea make sure you install the check valve. If your pump stops for any reason the water WILL syphon back into the pump and possibly out into the floor, draining the tank.

That is why they recommend the pump be above the water line, not below. But who puts their pump above the tank where everyone can see it? Hence we have check valves.

 

[rdd1952]

Maxta, that's the right Rena. The 50 won't give you a lot of depth though. If you only want to run one airstone, it should be fine but more could be a problem. The 50 says you can run 4 airstones at 12" deep but mine won't. Mine will barely run one at 12" and if there is more than one airstone attached, the one closest to the surface is the one that the air goes through. Kind of the path of least resistance.

 

[Maxta]

So its advised to get the Rena 100 then?

 

[rdd1952]

I would. Like filtration, more is always better. You can always buy one of the splitters that allows you to add multiple stones and sdjust the flow if you need to turn it down. I use those on my betta tanks so that there's only a few bubbles.

 

[Maxta]

Just another question or two.

Do these air pumps have adjustable settings on them, like a dial which can turn down the amount of bubbles/air created? My dad has a sena and his can do that, and thatd come in handy. Just cant find anything as of yet which states rena models do this.

Also, are these things reliable? I went on one site alone and out of 6/7 reviews, 3 peopled stated it became louder and louder and eventually packed in after 6 months. Thats not good.