The big red thing represents the air pump with the little red 1” OD pipe coming from it…
The black lines represent the walls of the 1” ID/1.5” OD Vinyl tubing…
The Blue lines represent the 1.5” ID PVC…
The vinyl hose should be hose clamped onto the pipe coming from the Air Compressor…
The vinyl hose then is inserted 12” inside the PVC pipe and sealed in place with PVC cement…
The PVC line then continues up the wall to connect to the loop…
Pic #2
If… your air pump plugs into your loop in the top left corner of this picture… Then the air pressure at the holes nearest your pump will be considerably higher than the air pressure in the bottom right corner.
Pic #3 points…
With this set up check valves are not needed. Check vavles prevent water from creeping up the line which can start a siphon draining the tank onto the floor. The water will not be able to “creep” all the way up the hose into the PVC. But do be aware if you unplug an airlone from the PVC loop, drop the line leaving the other end submerged, it could start a siphon and drain your tank onto the floor. So either buy a check valve for each airline in use, or pay attention and don’t let yourself start a siphon…
The air pump doesn’t “need” to be lower… it can be at any height you like. I suggest making it reachable and out of the way. Under a table is a good place…
For larger tanks just use more sponge filters. This system makes it very difficult to alter the air flow offered by each line. The only way (I know of) to do this is to put a flow restrictor on every air line. One detail to keep in mind, due to backpressure, you will get less bubbles from lines in deeper water…
As for “dill a hole and silicone hose in place”… that is the one detail I did not have solved. My best suggestion is to find metal or plastic parts that can be inserted into a drilled hole and sealed in. I would not trust silicone to seal in this application… if the part is plastic then I would use PVC cement… if it is metal then I would use a high grade glue that clearly states it is good for metal and plastic. I definitely would not just glue the air hose into the PVC. Repairing one of these is going to be a pain in the butt.
Pic #4
I have been assured that using the T’s will give me/you a much more balanced air pressure throughout the loop.
I fully understand and appreciate the need for versatility and future change. If you put a $ every 4’ with 10 hoses off each T… I think you will have plenty of hoses available regardless of how you set things up. This seems to be a very small price to pay for having equal pressure in the loop.
Also, another reminder… Having talked to several local people who have these types of pair loops in their fishrooms, after looking at websites of some of the pros who have this type of set ups and after asking some questions in forums… this is the concept/approach I’ve come up with…
I haven’t put it into practical application yet so I cannot speak from experience. I do know that I talked to at least one local guy who did it your way (loop with taps for airline) and he ended up fully replacing it and did it as I suggested…
