Looking at converting fish room over to linear air pump filters

LukeOscar

Polypterus
MFK Member
Mar 23, 2013
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ontario
Yes - several 6' tanks in the fishroom

On some larger tanks I've added a dump filter (basically a rubbermaid filled with bio material...fed by a small pump in the tank...that dumps back into the tank via gravity).
more commonly referred to as overhead sumps.
 

Lollum96

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 9, 2023
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1 X 125g
1 X 55g
1 X 50g
5 X 20g high
1 X 20g long
1 X 15g
2 x 10g
2 x 7g
1 X 5g
Been offered a pretty good deal on a 55l/Min air pump. Do you guys think that will be enough for these tanks above? Or should I go for the original 70-80l/Min pump that I was planning on?
 

Lollum96

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 9, 2023
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So after considering all the responses on here I've kind of come up with a good idea of what I'm thinking for each tank.

I have found a good price on poret foam long blocks. The blocks are 100cm X 10cm X 10cm. I'm going to use these to create long sponge filters that can sit in the corner of the tanks. Similar to a corner HMF accept the lift tube will be inserted down the centre of the sponge filter.

All sponge filters below would be 10 cm X 10cm just different lengths.

1 X 125g 2 x 60cm poret sponge filters
2 x 2lt bottle filters filled with K3 media
1 X 55g 1 X 30cm poret sponge filter and 1 X 2l bottle filter filled with K3 media
1 X 50g 1 X 30cm poret sponge filter and 1 X 2l bottle filter filled with K3 media
5 X 20g high 1 X 20cm poret sponge filter
1 X 20g long 1 X 20cm poret sponge filter
1 X 15g 1 X 20cm poret sponge filter
2 x 10g 1 X 15cm poret sponge filter
2 x 7g 1 X 10cm poret sponge filter
1 X 5g 1 X 10cm poret sponge filter

This is assuming I can make bottle filters with K3 media instead of K1 media? Anyone tried this? Only interested in the K3 media as I can get it stupidly cheap! Literally the equivalent of $7 for 10 litres! Not interested in K1 as it's expensive over here.

But yeah, anyone tried K3 in bottle filters? If it doesn't work I'll probably go for lava rock in some sort of DIY box filter!
 

Lollum96

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 9, 2023
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The filters would look similar to these. Accept they will only have one tube inserted as my foam is 10 x 10cm.f4c1045c2aa6063e8e18c991a6d35779.jpg
 

jjohnwm

Potamotrygon
MFK Member
Mar 29, 2019
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Manitoba, Canada
Where did you find 100cm long Poret cartridges? I have only found 50cm ones (15 x 15 cm), and would have loved the longer size for many applications.

Those pics show the blocks completed with the Jetlifter lift tubes; they work well, but are very expensive for what you are getting. You can match or exceed their flow rate by enlarging the predrilled holes and using larger diameter tubes (swiss-cheesed with holes to draw water through the entire length of the tube) with simple airstones. The multiple holes are best drilled at an angle, rather than at 90-degrees, to the tube wall; this prevents bubbles from escaping through the holes and into the foam.

Also, that vertical orientation works well for many tanks, but a horizontal layout is better in many other cases. Plug the hole at one end of the cartridge with a piece of foam; insert the airlift into the cartridge, and install an elbow on it right where it exits the foam. Lay the foam down horizontally on the tank bottom, point the elbow upwards, and attach a vertical standpipe up to the water surface, then another elbow at the top to direct the flow horizontally. You get an absolutely massive sponge filter this way, but it doesn't stand there like a skyscraper in your tank; much more easily concealed if the tank is a display tank. Obviously, in this case the airstone is not placed inside of the foam tube, but rather right at the bottom of the vertical lift tube.
 

Lollum96

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 9, 2023
52
24
8
29
Where did you find 100cm long Poret cartridges? I have only found 50cm ones (15 x 15 cm), and would have loved the longer size for many applications.

Those pics show the blocks completed with the Jetlifter lift tubes; they work well, but are very expensive for what you are getting. You can match or exceed their flow rate by enlarging the predrilled holes and using larger diameter tubes (swiss-cheesed with holes to draw water through the entire length of the tube) with simple airstones. The multiple holes are best drilled at an angle, rather than at 90-degrees, to the tube wall; this prevents bubbles from escaping through the holes and into the foam.

Also, that vertical orientation works well for many tanks, but a horizontal layout is better in many other cases. Plug the hole at one end of the cartridge with a piece of foam; insert the airlift into the cartridge, and install an elbow on it right where it exits the foam. Lay the foam down horizontally on the tank bottom, point the elbow upwards, and attach a vertical standpipe up to the water surface, then another elbow at the top to direct the flow horizontally. You get an absolutely massive sponge filter this way, but it doesn't stand there like a skyscraper in your tank; much more easily concealed if the tank is a display tank. Obviously, in this case the airstone is not placed inside of the foam tube, but rather right at the bottom of the vertical lift tube.
Sorry for the late reply mate. After much thought I decided to follow your advice and scrap the idea of the jet lifters. Seemed like a nightmare trying to make that many of them as well! I now just have straight tubes with holes drilled through them allowing suction through the entire section of foam.

I've attached an imagine of the first test build of the filters.

Regarding the poret foam. I got them from a place called The Shrimp Corner.. the foam wasn't pre drilled it just came in large slabs 100cm X 10cm X 10cm..


I've now purchased my pump and it's rated for 80l/min and 70w... At the same time I also picked up at 35l/Min pump as it was just to cheap for passing up on!

I just have a couple of questions regarding all this.

The first one being how to control how much air goes from the manifold into each tank. Some of the tanks are 5g and others are as much as 125g. Obviously the 125g tank will need more air flow. Is this best achieved just using a cheap airline control valve on each airline? Some of the tanks are also higher than others meaning the airlines will be different lengths. Will this affect how much air is going to each filter?

Also I was wondering regarding air and manifolds. How much air (litres per minute) can actually be pumped through a 4mm airline.


Say I had a 10 outlet manifold with 4mm airlines attached to a 80l/Min pump. Would this mean that each of the outlets would be pumping 8l/min? Equally could I attach an 8 outlet manifold with 4mm airline and achieve 10l/Min from each airline? Or does it not exactly work like that?

Is there a limit to how much air can be pumped down each 4mm airline tube per minute?? I imagine like with overflows and sumps there would be some sort of maximum airflow per minute per 4mm airline??

Just curious as the seller of the pump stated that the 80l/Min pump would usually be used with a 50 outlet manifold which is much bigger than I planned on!!

IMG_20230616_175654754.jpg
IMG_20230616_175644049.jpg
 

jjohnwm

Potamotrygon
MFK Member
Mar 29, 2019
3,706
8,953
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Manitoba, Canada
My pump is coincidentally almost exactly half the capacity of yours; it's rated at 40 l/m and, again coincidentally, I cobbled together a 24-outlet manifold. I used 3/4-inch PVC and got some threaded brass valves that simply screwed into pre-drilled holes in the PVC; put a dab of silicone on the threads before tightening. This thing goes together in less time than it takes to tell, and it has worked flawlessly. A single standard airline runs from each valve to the various bubbly-air-things I have, again all homemade.

Some of these individual airlines are only a few feet long; others run more like 30 feet; and two are almost 60 feet long! At the moment I have a total of 18 running, but they're always being added, changed, removed, etc. Depths are almost all between 18 and 23 inches. Still lots of air being exhausted through a couple of valves that are just bleeders. I have each valve numbered and keep a written chart showing which valve feeds which tank; in my fishroom, with some tanks here, and a couple more over there, and one down there, and two upstairs...not keeping track of them will lead to madness.

Limits on air through a small diameter air line? Of course there must be limits, but I have no idea what they are, or how the various configurations you mentioned would compare. I divide everything into one of two categories: enough air...and not enough air. I don't trust the rated capacities of air pumps any more than I do the rated fuel consumption of different vehicles or the tank-size capacity of various filters. There are just too many variables for those ratings to be anything more than a very rough comparative guideline. I know my buddy's Alita pump had similar numbers to mine, but for whatever reason it seems much less "powerful", for lack of a better term, than my HiBlow.

Don't forget also that the capacity of an air pump is determined not only by the volume of air it produces, but also by the pressure it creates. I seem to recall that mine is somewhere around 90 watts, so maybe it generates more pressure? I never got into the details of that...remember the enough/not-enough thing? I have enough, so...that's enough for me. :) But you might enjoy playing around with those numbers as well.
 
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