Ok looking for some advice on an air pump for my Tilapia Tank. Wanted to know if anyone has ever used one of these.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3669+14684&pcatid=14684

Or something like it. My tank is 300 gallons and trying to figure out how to get my Tilapia more air, my filter acts like a fountain and may pick up some air particles on the way back down but I am sure they could use more. The tank is outside and gets pretty warm as well, but since it has warmed up they have finally started eating more. I have had a small air pump for an aquarium in there but moved it to my fry tank, not sure how much it helped in the 300 gallon tank anyway.

Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated.

No help here but I would love to see some pics of the tank. I have been thinking about building an aquaponics setup myself to grow out tilapia for use in my pond. Though the wife doesnt think I need a big aqaurium as I have a 1.4 acre aquarium already. Women just dont understand.

I will try to get some pics up here. I have yet to turn mine into an aquaponic setup as of yet. It is more of a very low end RAS. I had it last year and grew some out from fry to about 8 inches which I thought was not bad in the amount of time and not knowing much about them. Plus I had way too many in the tank and let many of them go in our ponds but it was so late I do not think they were able to spawn or eat any algae.

This year I bought some larger ones for the ponds and kept a few just to see if I could get them to spawn in the tank (confirm I had both male and female fish). They managed to pull off a spawn so I am happy. I may have to think them out more since they are so large but want to see how much these larger ones grow before I harvest them this fall.

If I had somewhere to over winter a breeding colony I would probably try that as well just to see if I could accomplish this as well. At any rate they are a fun hobby, the kids love to see them, and they will make a nice meal later on.

I am in the same boat with the large aquarium, so I feel your pain.

I use them. I like them a lot. You can buy replacement diaphragms for them, usually replace every three years. Often you can pick them up fairly cheap on Ebay.

Brier,

What model do you have and how many? Have you had to replace any parts as of yet?

Did you get yours on ebay or do you have another source that would be cheaper?

My tank is outside so would it be possible to put this pump in a tub or box to keep it from getting wet or would that cause it to get too hot?

Thanks

I have several models. Small-large. I have replaced diaphragms. Takes a few minutes. I have bought them from several sources. I would ventilate whatever enclosure you use with hardware cloth, or many holes drilled in it, and try to keep it out of full sun.

How far will these push air? I could try to put in under the carport that is close by and not cover at all maybe to help with heat. Not sure how one would do in the rain.

I am really considering trying one as it has to be at least as good as any Tetra Whisper you can buy or other type hobby pump, for the amount of air I could use.

Way better. I have a small one in my basement that pushes air 75 feet out to the pond, and 4 foot deep that I use during the winter for shallow end de-icing.

Thanks for the review brier.

I was looking at the SL-65 a couple months ago for some testing. I dug a Gast 0523 out of my garage, so that's what I'll use for now. That way I can tweak the pressure and air flow and get good numbers.

Pretty sure the SL-65 will do the trick.

The 65 is what I use for de-icing. I also have a much bigger model that I use for a RAS. Price wise, and reliability, you cant beat them.

RAS is my application, but have a few experiments to conduct.

Thanks for your input.