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A Guide to Air Pumps
15th May, 2008
A Guide to Air PumpsBY: Jennifer
THE AQUARIUM COMPANY
All life forms require a certain amount of oxygen and aquatic species are no different. Most aquariums will benefit from a greater oxygen content in the water. Filtration system performance and overall water quality will be greatly improved by adding that little bit more air that most species will find naturally in their native environment.
Some times however it can be a bit confusing as to how much air you need or should have in your aquarium. My opinion is, you can never have too much air, unless you are building up your Carbon Dioxide for a planted aquarium. It improves fish health and helps combat those difficult times like when you are cycling a new tank or when you are medicating.
Now the question is how many outlets do you need, If you are only using one outlet for a small filter or an air decoration a single airpump is fine, single airpumps are also great to have on hand for emergencies as well, such as a filter breaking or baby fish needing isolation or maybe sick fish needing treatment in an isolation tank.
If you are running more than one outlet, you can easily determine whether you have enough air by the bubble flow, for any form of filtration just imagine you are blowing air into a drinking straw fairly quickly and you will see a nice steady stream of air ( don’t blow too hard just a medium release of your breath) that ‘s what you want to see coming out of the air stone after the filter is attached, if you only have a weak airstream it is not a powerful enough pump for your use.
Air stones and decorations are the same however you can use a tap to slow down the air flow.
- Some action ornaments are moved by air passing through them, turning valves, spinning wheels, lifting things, or whatever.
- Some people like to have air stones in the tank which just bubble or give off a fine mist of air.
- Some filters, such as corner filters and under gravel filters are (or can be) driven by air and would require an air pump. Some of these can also be driven by water pumps.
- Some underwater habitats for semi-aquatic animals, such as Newts, Crabs, Mudskippers, and some Frogs or Shrimp, also require an air pump to keep fresh air circulating into the enclosure so that these animals do not crawl out into an unaerated environment.
- Air pumps can also be used to create a current in the water, to prevent parts of the tank from becoming stagnant.
- Air pumps are required for some types of protein skimmers to operate in marine tanks.
Are Air Pumps Necessary?
That depends on what you mean. If you have a filter that is run by an air pump, then the air pump is necessary, as without it the filter will not operate and you are not going to be gaining benefit from having that filter on your tank.If you have an action ornament that is run by an air pump, and you wish to have it operating as designed, then , again, the air pump is necessary.
If you wish to have an air stone giving off a cascade of bubbles as a decoration in your tank, than, again, the air pump to run this air stone is arguably necessary.
One of the most common misconceptions in the aquarium hobby, possibly second only to "fish will not outgrow their aquarium", is that you need an air pump and air stones to provide sufficient oxygenation to that tank to keep the fish healthy, and that the air pump provides oxygen to the water. In fact, the air pump is not necessary to keeping fish, except as noted above. An air pump will not directly put oxygen into the water, what it will do is two things:
- Increase surface area
- Improve circulation
Choosing the Right Air Pump
There is no hard and fast rule for choosing an air pump. Some air pumps are rated for different sizes of tanks, but these ratings are, actually, nearly irrelevant to choosing the correct air pump.If you are using the air pump only to operate an under gravel filter, and your tank is a standard size, then the tank size ratings on an air pump are probably relevant. However, if you are doing anything else with the air pump, or if your tank is not a standard size, then the tank size ratings for an air pump are highly irrelevant.
Here are some guidelines to have in mind when you are choosing an air pump for your aquarium:
- The more things you are running from your air pump, the larger air pump you will need, and conversely, the fewer things you are running from your air pump, the smaller air pump you will need.
- If you tank is more than 18-20" (46-51cm) tall, you will need to get a special deep water air pump designed to push air that far below the water surface.
- The more resistance the things you are pushing air through have to the air, the larger an air pump you will need. (Larger air stones will provide more resistance than smaller air stones, and any air stone will provide more resistance than no air stone. Also, some kinds of air stones will provide even more resistance than others of the same size.)
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