American Cichlid Association

Fishroom Air Loop Set Up Quesitons

S

Shawnc

Members
I have three fish rooms each running a LPH60 linear pump from Jehmco, each on a loop but with connectors and cutoff valves so I can make it one, two or three loops so that if any one air pump gives out, I can just open the appropriate cutoff valve and use the capacity of the other two pumps to cover until I get the one pump rebuilt. Each room as 40-60 outlets driving sponge and HMF filters.

I have used blowers in the past but the noise drove me crazy which is why I switch to linear air pumps. Theoretically a linear pump will not wear out but just the diaphragm that will need to be replaced and in most cases not for 5-10 years.

I use 1 1/2" PVC and my approach is that if the piping is for air, I just use Teflon tape and press fit the joints but if it is water, then I glue the joints.

Besides for sponge filters I also use air for moving bed filters and algae scrubbers.
 
chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
woot!

I saw in a different thread today, the recommendation that one should have a backup air pump on their fishroom as well.

How many of us do that? How do you configure it?
 
jonclark96

jonclark96

Past CCA President
I imagine that you could run another tee into your loop and add valves between the loop and the air pumps so that you could switch from one pump to the next if something failed. It wouldn't be too much extra plumbing, but getting something that automatically switched would be a bit more difficult, I think. You'd have to have a pressure sensor on your loop that energized the back up if pressure was lost. Not impossible, but probably difficult for a DIY application.
 
chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
I wouldn't even mind running two pumps since ALL of my tanks are running on air. But wouldn't the setup need to be such that all tanks could be supported by one pump but that two pumps wouldn't create too much pressure, which would damage both pumps.....or am I overthinking this? Or do I just leave one pump ready but still in the box in case the first one fails? The automatic switching that you mention, Jon, sounds ideal but also the most difficult to set up.
 
Localzoo

Localzoo

Board of Directors
chriscoli said:
I wouldn't even mind running two pumps since ALL of my tanks are running on air. But wouldn't the setup need to be such that all tanks could be supported by one pump but that two pumps wouldn't create too much pressure, which would damage both pumps.....or am I overthinking this? Or do I just leave one pump ready but still in the box in case the first one fails? The automatic switching that you mention, Jon, sounds ideal but also the most difficult to set up.
Click to expand...

I believe you could add some sort of adjustable air regulator. So that even if you run both pumps the psi could be adjusted in the loop but that means wasting some air and power. Someone with more experience let me know if that's possible.


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chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
I currently have a bleed valve on my loop. Is that the type of thing you're think of? It's manual, though, so if one pump died it's likely that the deep tanks would stop running if I were bleeding a lot of air off....
 
JLW

JLW

CCA Members
If you have two pumps on one loop, they will not "add" to each other linearly (i.e., two identical pumps won't generate twice as much air), but will give, depending on how the system is exactly laid out, anywhere from a small boost to a LOSS of air pressure.

Either way, the pressure from pump A will put back pressure on pump B (and vice versa), greatly decreasing the lifespan of the pump. Don't do this. :)

Having a backup air pump is a great idea, but it should be on a shelf somewhere waiting to get swapped out if disaster strikes. Yes, that means that it may not be an instantaneous swap, but (at least in my experience) these things don't quit entirely all at once. You look and the pump that was powering 150 tanks happily isn't powering the deep ones anymore, and is making a funky noise...
 
dogofwar

dogofwar

CCA Members
I think having back-up (just in case) extra pump to run the loop is the safest thing to do... as Josh describes having a redundant pump running the same loop (at the same time) is hard to do...
 
Pat Kelly

Pat Kelly

CCA Member
chriscoli said:
woot!

I saw in a different thread today, the recommendation that one should have a backup air pump on their fishroom as well.

How many of us do that? How do you configure it?
Click to expand...


I have a back up but not hooked into the system. Its sitting in a cabinet just in case. Its a blower that I picked up at a CCA auction for next to nothing.
 
jonclark96

jonclark96

Past CCA President
Well, most of my purchasing is complete and I have materials at the house. I ordered my air pump from Jehmco on Friday and it was delivered yesterday. I picked up all the PVC yesterday except for a tee fitting, as I wasn't sure what was coming with the pump to tie into the loop. I ordered some filters from Swiss Tropicals that came in yesterday as well (just need to swing by Christine's place and get them).

Now I just need a couple of hours to get things put together.

For those who are interested, I decided on 1 1/2" PVC. My room is 13'-6" by 11' and I am going to run a loop around the entire perimeter. The pump will sit on a shelf near the loop that will run approximately 8" down from the ceiling. I will run about 30 outlets off of the loop. All in, including the pump, total costs will be around $300.
 
jonclark96

jonclark96

Past CCA President
I'll take some pics before I get started. This is phase 1 of what I have in mind for the room. I picked up Christine's rack for 4' tanks that I need to move in, which will allow me to set up another 55 gallon tank. The rest of the room was kind of built one tank/stand at a time, so nothing is really consistent. In the long run, I want to paint all of the racks to be the same color and redo the lighting on the tanks.
 
Jmty

Jmty

Members
question:
1) why set pump hi of the ground ? heat rises.
2) isn't it cheaper to have diaphragms ready to exchange ?
 
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