Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions My DIY Eco 7 SYSTEM

Here ia a video I made this weekend of my Eco 7 pump in action at 6.5 half feet with 2, 9 inch fine bubble diffusers. My pond is down right now at least 14 to 15 inches though but this same pump does the same job at full pool too.

I did not have a gauge on the pump at this time but if you use 1 psi for ever 2 feet of water then my particular pump must be pusing at least 4 psi as it runs just as good in 8 feet as it is in this video at 6.5 feet. Am I maxing it out? I am sure I am but I only run it a night not 24/7. Ted has been kind enough to send me the pump they were testing and I will set it up on my system also to see if it works as good as my original pump. I am sure these pumps vary in performance and pressure but for 110 bucks that is a chance you are taking. Anyhow just thought I would show my pump in action.

Once again as stated before just because this pump and setup works for me doesn't mean it's the best thing for your particular pond, but it does work for my situation.

RC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDJ1YOyMrPg&feature=youtu.be

Nice Vid, RC!

When you get the rig from Ted, hook it up exactly as you have yours. Don't add any thing to the plumbing, what so ever!!!

Do you have a way to measure amperage and voltage at the motor?

Hey JKB no I don't sorry. I will hook it up though and take another video of it working or not!

Thanks,
RC

The only thing that I'd do is hook up a 0-25 psi pressure gauge to yours and use the same gauge on the one that you get from Ted. Without it, you're flying blind.

Yeah I will try esshup I have not found a gauge that small yet. Lowes and Home Depot only had 100 psi and that's way to much to get a reading.

It's not top of the line, but you can get a liquid filled, 0-30 psi gauge for around $20 here:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#liquid-filled-pressure-gauges/=nu7vvx

We offer a 0 – 50 PSI gauge for about $21

http://www.livingwateraeration.com/lifiprgu.html

for less than $20 look at a kill-a-watt for watts, volts and amps.



Kill-a-watt

I would get a 0-15 psi gauge. Make sure it is graded!, if not, you really don't know what you have.

The link sparkplug put up has some decent ones. Don't know what brand you'll get tho with McMaster, but they usually have some decent stuff. You can call and ask.

I was looking at a few brands that I like, but they cost more than your pump.

Dwyer has a decent gauge here, not liquid filled, but is an accuracy grade 1A, 0-10 psi, so that's accurate to 1/10th psi. Dwyer
It is a low pressure gauge tho, so you have to be careful not to spike them. I like their differential pressure gauges for low measurements. You can plug one port and use it for direct pressure, or use both ports for measuring pressure drop from point A to B. Valves are notorious for pressure drop, so are flow meters. Pressure drop in a system is permanent, so If it is critical, you need to know what that is.

This explains gauge grade accuracy: Gauge Accuracy

Do both tests exactly the same tho.

Thanks everyone

RC

I hope that you'll post your results as I'm eager to see what you find. As some of you may have read in that other RC7 thread, I'm experiencing my own disappointment with one of these pumps.

Great video RC , that's exactly how my pump moves water in 8ft were alil flooded right my discs are in about 14 ft they don't move it near as fast but they are moving it .

Hey Cody thanks, 14 feet that's awesome! Your a couple feet off the bottom though right? Even so at 12 feet that would still be good! You may have a stronger pump than mine! I don't think mine would pump at 12 feet let lone 14, but my pump is going on 4.5 years old now.


Bullhead,

I will try and post what I can but it may be a while. I am going on vacation end of this week so it's going to be 2 or 3 weeks before I can do anything I bet, but I will do some testing as soon as I can.

Perhaps in the mean time I'll put a gauge on mine and see what it reads, but for anyone smarter than me, how should the pump and pressure react to changing depths?
With nothing but a hose on the pump, the gauge I would guess, would read near zero. When you add the diffusers, but have them on land, the pressure would go up some but not a lot because the only resistance is the diffusers themselves. Now say you put them under a foot of water, the pressure goes up and you get a lot of bubbling. Increase the depth to six feet and what should happen? Will the pressure go up? The pump can only provide so much pressure. Wouldn't a flow meter be needed to see what's actually happening?

IMO one should not operate an aerator without a low pressure gauge. The gauge tells you when the diffusers are clogging and allows you to trouble shoot system problems. An aerator without a gauge is like a car with out any instruments both run but one doesn't know much about how well it is operating.

Setting up an aerator with diffuser out of the water should provide 0.5 to 0 psi with distances less than 300ft. Most of that 0.5psi will be caused by the diffuser. More pressure means their is undue back pressure somewhere in the system. The gauge lets you know if you found and fixed the problem. Problems can be varied; one example - too small of diameter airline. Remove the diffuser with just compressor and hose psi should read 0. Diffusers at 1 ft deep psi should be 0.5-1psi max. At 6ft deep the psi should be 3-3.5psi.

Good stuff, Bill!

There are also "C" and "D" grade gauges, which are 4% and 5% respectively.

If you have a 0-50 psi "D" grade gauge, it should read accurate +/- 2.5 psi. A 0-15 psi "D" grade gauge will read accurate +/- 0.75 psi.

A "graded" gauge means that it has been tested and it complies with ASME specifications.

A non-graded gauge, well, the manufacturer may have built it to certain specifications, but they cant really tell you if it is accurate. They may do random testing, but how big is the lot size between tests? How many lemons are getting shipped out? I've had lemons in the past and it cost me on one project! Never used a non-graded gauge since then!

If you put a flowmeter on your rig, put the gauge "after" the flowmeter. If you have a lot of hardware like manifolds, valves... I would put one at the pump and one on the line out to the fuser. It will give you an idea of what your pressure drop across these items is. It may be really low, or could be significant.

Any word on that other compresser from Ted?

Hey Jwwann I got the pump from Ted, but it will be a bit before I cant try it out. I don't live at my pond and it's 92 miles away so it may be a while but I will test it on my system when I get a chance.

RC

I thought about buying one, and put the screws to it.

Best thing is to let RC mess with it when he get's a chance tho.

I installed a gauge on my system yesterday. With nothing connected to the end of the T following the gauge, it read zero. Holding my thumb over the end of the fitting I got a max reading of 3 pounds. I connected it to the line to the diffuser and the gauge hardly moved, still reading very near zero. I am running two 9 inch diffuser in series about four feet apart. The one on the end is boiling the water while the first one is just sending up very small bubbles.
Anything that can be learned from this besides I shouldn't have the diffusers running in series?

Wow what a difference a couple of weeks can make! Hate to say this folks but I got to my land on Saturday and my pump would come on but was not pumping very much air. It finally died after 4 years 12 hours a night. Not bad for a 100 dollar pump! So with that said I am sorry but can't give you any data from my pump. What I can tell you is this. Below is a video of the pump Ted sent me THANK GOODNESS he did cause he saved my butt or at least my fishes butt's! THANKS TED!!! It hooked right up and took off like a champ in almost 8 feet of water. My pond has come up quite a bit in the last few weeks as you can see on this video that white structure I have is almost all back under water now.

So what to come of this? I think it's simple. Vertex fusers need more air to make them work verses diffuser express fusers more than likely due to the slit size on the membranes. My slits are 1mm Vertex are .5mm so it's a bit harder to push air through them. I did not do any testing with the Vertex fusers as my pump was toast and we already know the pump Ted sent me won't push them past 4 or 5 feet. I don't think that makes my air setup wrong or not correct I still think 1mm slits are doing just fine on my pond and moving my water great. Once again I still believe mis managment causes more fish kills than a certain type of air setup to a certain point. You just have to manage around what you have and it will work fine to a certain degree of course. Am I pushing my pump to the max at 8 to 10 feet? Sure I am but for 100 bucks with 4 years of work out of it I'll push it all day every day.

RC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U4GzzmGbEc&feature=youtu.be

RC I'm not very knowledgeable about aeration, but what you're describing with the different slit sizes between diffusers, (and corresponding resistance to a given air pressure) ,seems plausible to me.

Hey Spark I am no expert either by any means but it's the only thing I could come up with. If I am off base on this of course please someone feel free to chime in. I welcome it.

RC

Your on track with the larger slits, but membrane thickness would also play a role.

I have some Vertex fusers I bought from esshup. Tried to get one apart to measure the membrane. Not gonna work at the moment.

One thing I did not notice at esshup's is if the flow meter was hooked up with the fusers. That would account for a pressure drop to the fusers, also the attitude. I know they were holding it in their hand, but ya got to maintain proper attitude. That was a ball type with needle valve so it probably would have sucked some depth off.

Guess well have to investigate this at EsshupStock II Now that we have more than a month to plan