Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions 2 pumps 1 manifold?

I have a 2 acre pond I have 3 double 9'' vertex diffusers. Last year I only ran 2 of the double diffusers, they are both in around 12 foot of water. 1 is a 50 foot run and the other 100 foot. I was running the diffusers with a Thomas 2660. I had 2 pumps, 1 for each double diffuser. I done a rebuild on the top end of one of the pumps. I went ahead and turned my aeration on a little early for trial and error. I was running 2 of the doubles off one pump. The pump seemed to be failing yesterday as it was running louder and didn't seem to be producing as many bubbles. So my question is has anyone ever built a manifold and hooked 2 pumps up to it? What I'm wanting to do is add the third double disc diffuser in 8 foot of water. So I would have 2 pumps going in and 3 outputs on my manifold. I would put a check valve coming off each pump to insure it wasn't trying to pump air into the other pump.

I guess the only reason you don't want to run one big pump that puts out more CFM is because you already own the two Thomas pumps?

I have been thinking about buying a bigger pump and just run one pump... I'm just on a budget and wasn't sure which pump would run this system and what the cost would be. If the price was right yes I would buy one. But was just wondering if what I was talking about would work just in case its my only option.

Yes, you could run two pumps into the same manifold. It won't be as efficient as running a single pump but it will work. Make sure to include bypass valves so each pump can be shut down for maintenance, cleaning, etc.

I would sell both Thomas pumps and install something like this. Eventually I would think that the energy savings of not running the extra 1/4hp would pay for itself. Plus, I am fairly sure this one puts out more CFM than both Thomas pumps combined.

https://www.grainger.com/product/GAST-3-..._Also_Purchased

I would like to have one like that, unfortunately I don't have that kind of money to spend at this time. If I could find one for around half the price maybe I could.

Would that pump for sure run my setup? I have found one at a pretty good price. I just hate to drop that much money and it not be strong enough.

From the specs in the link, it looks like it will produce around 9 CFM in about 20 feet of water. Is that enough for your setup?

If I recall correctly, the vertex diffusser requires 0.5 cfm to operate which would be 1 cfm per double.