Having trouble with air to bottm tanks.

[wild bill]

We set up a The Pump 80 it is running about 35 tanks. The problem I am having is it doesn't have enough air pressure to run filters on our bottom tanks. The main line from the pump is three quarter inch and air lines off of that. The bottom tanks are about 4 and a half feet bellow the main line an the deepest are 33 gallons about 19 inches deep. Any advice would be great I kind of think we need a larger air pump as I still want to add more tanks to this set up.

 

[DIDYSIS]

what type of air pump exactly? Sounds like more would be best, have you checked the life of the pump is it wearing out? Pressure gauge ran on the pipe at all?

 

[noside]

The main airline at 3/4" probably can not carry enough volume of air. For rooms at around 50 tanks I'd go with 1.5" main line at a minimum.

Before doing anything you can just add an in line pressure gauge towards the end of your run and see what your physical readings are while under operation. Compare this to the normal operating pressure of your pump and you should have your answer.

 

[wild bill]

Our air pump is actually called The Pump and it is the model 80. The out let on the pump is three quarter inch pipe but only about three eights hole coming out of that.
I think this pump was a product carried by Hagen but not sure. We are looking to try and be able to run about 100 plus tanks eventually. Any thoughts on a far more powerful pump or should we be looking at a blower?

 

[notho2000]

The Pump you have should be able to provide enough air for all your tanks, regardless of where they are located. What you do need is a larger diameter pipe from which the airlines are distributed. As was mentioned by noside, 3/4" diameter piping need to be upped to 1 1/2". The larger internal volume of air held by it will be able to provide higher, more sustained pressures to distribute the air to your tanks. I run a Pump model 100 with a Pump 40 for backup and they work very well even though they're over 20 years old. I doubt whether you'll be able to provide air for ~100 tanks, especially if they're all deep. I used to run air to 160 killie tanks, but none were deeper than 12", most of them less than that.

 

[wild bill]

When I upgrade to inch and a half should I run that on all 3 levels or just along the ceiling.

 

[notho2000]

When I upgrade to inch and a half should I run that on all 3 levels or just along the ceiling.

You don't need to run it on all levels. Just one around the ceiling and individual air line tubing running down to each tank from the valves.

 

[wild bill]

Would going to 2 inch be going to far or is there such a thing.
I think I understand thee volume issue the larger your container when pressure is built up a small leak matters less. Are the standard pastic valves good enough or would threaded brass be better.

 

[wild bill]

Also should ask does it hurt to hook more than one pump into the system. While I am at it should the pipe be in a joining loop or be capped at one end.

 

[notho2000]

Would going to 2 inch be going to far or is there such a thing.
I think I understand thee volume issue the larger your container when pressure is built up a small leak matters less. Are the standard pastic valves good enough or would threaded brass be better.

I don't really know if the 2" would be even more effective than the 1 1/2". Can't hurt, I guess. I use brass screw-in valves for the most part, although I do have some of the plastic (neoprene) valves too and they seem to be as equally effective.

Also should ask does it hurt to hook more than one pump into the system. While I am at it should the pipe be in a joining loop or be capped at one end.

Can't really comment on multiple pumps. I would think that unless they have equal outputs, the back pressure on the smaller one might be a problem. I think the joined loop would be better if the tank arrangement in your fish room lends itself to that. Mine is linear (capped at one end) and I have no problem with it.