my question is about electricity usage. as a temp. system to save fish from a harsh winter I bought a 3 ft diffuser hooked to 250 ft of 5/8 garden hose, ran into an 80 gallon 5 hp compressor that also runs the work shop. the compressor is 220. I connected a 2psi valve, and it works great I can blast high pressure through and make the water boil a foot in the air. is it good to bring all that muck up like that? I worry about blowing the diffuser so I keep it at 2psi 24/7 but I can easily bump that up.im looking at the pondmaster 100 the only reason to save electricity. will it save enough to justify the 200.00 and can the pressure be bumped up? my shop compressor runs 2 minutes every 1/2 hour. should the pondmaster run 24/7 or be ran on a timer? should it run all seasons or be turned off at times? thank you

For the winter, you want your diffuser placed in water that is about 1/4 the total pond depth. That will open up the ice, let sunlight in, outgas the water, but still leave a warm water refuge for the fish.

There's more to aeration than pumping air into the pond. You need to calculate how many gallons per minute the diffusers bring to the surface, how many gallons of water are in the pond, etc., etc.

Find an electric calculator online and calculate your 5 hp motor running "X" minutes per month vs the smaller system. Remember when a compressor starts, it uses roughly 50% more juice than when it's running.

sorry bad question by a lazy person with no computer skills ill stick with the big overpowered system the fish are worth a little extra money

a 100 watt pump uses 2400 watts a day , a 5hp compressor 12000 that comes to about 6 dollars a month compared to 34.8 dollars a month. or 72.00 a yr compared to 415.00 per yr. 7 months to recover cost of buying a smaller continuous running pump. that's a no brainer buy it

Sorry, I got busy and dropped the ball on this one. Don't forget that compressor motors take more power to get up and running, so with the larger one starting frequently I'll bet that your electric costs are even higher than what you calculated. Also, what will the 5 hp motor cost to rebuild when it comes time vs. the smaller one?

im having trouble matching the pump to diffuser. the pump pond master 100 9150 cu in/min 6.5 psi. the diffuser 2 5/8 in round 30 in long membrain flow interference 14 11/16 gallons mixed/hr @6ft depth per cfm air input 10.8 air requirments 3-15 scfm. one is measured in gallons per hour and the other cubic inch per minute. pump is psi and diffuser is scfm. do I need to convert psi into scfm I don't think that is possible it seems to me the diffuser will handle up to 4 psi so is this pump to much at6.5 psi?