Central air pump recommendations.

[Racersk]

I am looking at a low wattage central air pump for use with 5 tanks (125, 90, x2 45 and 29) and a small outdoor pond (6x2 kidney bean preformed). I am running all from a standard issue 1980's oil lubed dental compressor with an air dryer and x3 5 micron filters currently. I want to also eventually run all tanks using air-specifically for bio and add my pond to my current layout (currently ran by a single air pump).

What minimum output should I be looking for? SCFM and pressure. No tank or pond is over 24" deep, so Do I need to just worry out cfm-as the extra pressure isn't really needed?


I was looking at pond air pumps, but I would like to know what people are using for multiple tanks.

 

[Cablemonkey]

I went with a commercial grade 45 Liter per minute piston driven air pump. Down sides are it is not as quiet (though not "super" loud) but the upsides are
1. No damn Diaphragm to wear out!
2. Very powerful, for the $50-ish price tag I paid, it blows the 3-4L per minute "Silent" pumps out of the water, literally!
3. Comes with a larger diameter port to a 3/8"? hose with leads into a 6 way metal adjustable splitter.
4. Could easily have more splitters put on it! Did I mention its powerful? And if you don't think this is powerful enough, there are a lot of different size.
5. No Damn Diaphragm to wear out!
6. I dont even need a power head in my 60g tank, I just put a 6" stone at one end and opened the hose to 3/4 power and it creates enough current to keep all the junk moving till the filter can suck it up. Very very little settlement.
7. No maintenance on the pump!
8. Did I mention no damn diaphragms to wear out?

I reviewed tons of regular diaphragm air pumps but having had a diaphragm go out on my whisper and my "silent" pumps never be silent is what set me on my search. All the reviews on pumps are plagued with the diaphragm failure issue so thats when I look at these oiless piston pumps and I am very happy with my decision (despite it not being silent).

It took me a little bit to get used sound (its sitting out in the open still, I am working on building my cabinet still) but the pros definitely out weigh the cons to me. Just make sure you have enough stuff to be able to keep it mostly open because it seems if you keep it more than 1/2 shut down it gets a little louder. This thing could easily run a dozen sponge filters...

This is the one I have, but there are even more powerful ones.Commercial 45L Air Pump

The pond pumps are decent but for the value, these commercial ones are more bang for the buck

 

[Racersk]

I am familiar with this style of pump, and since it will be in the garage with the noisy rushing water in those tanks, I doubt I'll notice it, it will be quieter than the current air compressor for sure, and 45watts is less than that thing pulls, although not constantly. I'll compare this too.

I do plan on running about a dozen Hydor IV's worth of filtration eventually, so I'll just plan on more of those.

Thanks for the info!