Hey RC51 and Cody I am in the same boat as you guys with a smaller pond at 3/4 acre. I like your set up. could you guys let me know what the prices were on the compresser, diffusers, and weighted hose.Just was curious on what this set up will run me and where is the best place to get all these items. Thanks in advance Roadjoker
Hey RJ,
Thanks for the kind words. Here are my links where I bought my diffusers and my Eco plus 7 air pump.
http://www.aquariumspecialty.com/catalog...ac6a4ac1fada291http://www.diffuserexpress.com/catalog/flexair_threaded_disc_diffusers.htmlYou can get the pump for 104 bucks plus shipping. Awesome deal on this pump man it works great for 1 acre or less ponds with a max depth of 10 feet.
The diffusers I believe were like 16 or so bucks a piece plus shipping.
Here is what I have.
1 - Eco Plus 7 Air Pump - 104 bucks plus Shipping.
3 - Air diffusers 9 inch in diameter FINE bubble NOT large bubble. They have both on the site be careful you don't select large bubble.
75 feet of weighted 5/8th inch ID hose from Ted Lea at
http://www.cleanponds.com He has a pretty darn good price on weighted hose and he is a good guy and will try and help you out if he can. I can't quite remember what I paid for the hose. I think is was around 115 bucks give or take a buck plus shipping.
For my diffuser station I used 5/8 inch PVC with 5/8 inch to 3/4 inch elbows cause the diffusers will have a 3/4 inch male thread on them to screw into the 3/4 female end of the PVC pipe. Just screw them down. Of course you will need a nipple where you join the weighted hose to the PVC on the diffuser station panel and I used a 3 way piece in the middle so I could branch off 3 different ways. Make sure you glue all your pvc pieces together good.
I used the side of a metal computer panel for my platform. Drilled holes in it where needed and used large zip strips to fasten it down to the panel. I also stuck a couple of hangers in the holes and wrapped them up so I could lower into my pond with something as simple as some rope. Just double the rope over and when you have it in place let one end of the rope go and pull it up. My only problem was weight!! I set it in the water and it wanted to semi float on me. So I took 4, 4 inch round wheel bearings and fastend them to the panel as you can see in the picture that worked great!! Some guys use tires as well.
As far as my air station I pretty much made a mailbox type post stand just not as high and screwed a small cat/dog kennel to it. It works great cause you keep your pump out of the elements and you still get good ventilation. I just took the door in front off.
I extended my tubing some by putting a 15 foot piece of plastic tubing on my air pump first and then attaching my weighted hose to that. But if you going to go that same route let me tell you what I did wrong. I put that plastic tubing directly onto the nipple coming out of the air pump! Bad idea that pump does get pretty hot really hot here in Arkansas so I took it off and went down to Auto Zone and bought a 12 inch 1/2 inch ID radiator hose to put on first and then put the plastic tubing onto that. That worked great!! Now I don't have to worry about the pump melting my plastic tubing.
And of course I put metal clamps in the the spots needed to secure the tubing and weighted hose. I hope this helps here are a few more pictures for reference. As you can see in the one picture of the air station I have not added the radiator hose yet. I did that after I took these pictures. I attached a timer on the side of the 4x4 post to run at 2,4,6,8 hours or from dusk to dawn. I have to give a shout out to the pond boss memebers though for much of this setup. They were great in helping me out so I hope I can return the favor.
