I can't give you a legitimate answer to that because have had very little experience with such pumps, and what experience I have had is in other applications than supplying air.

But some generalities:

A piston type pump by its design has a design that lends itself to higher pressures, thereby can operate at deeper depths. If you have a shallow pond, this requirement might not be needed thereby perhaps not being the most efficient at delivering relative high volumes at low pressure.

A rotary vane pump from my experience on other applications tends to be noisy and they are not particularly good as pressures increase. They like higher volumes at lower pressures.

Now having said all that on compressor design, it may be more splitting hairs rather than useful information. I would look at what is available, what is commonly used for pond aeration use, figure your volume requirements of cfm flow needed at the head pressure (water depth based on the water flow you need and the diffuser(s) you are going to use. Start with the diffusers, then see what pump best fits the needs to supply those diffusers based on initial cost, longevity, dependability, and operating cost.

The diffusers are the key to aeration. Then find a pump that operates the diffusers correctly.

There may be trade offs. IE, a very dependable pump that will run for years with little maintenance may cost more in electric cost. Are you willing to change pumps out more often or do maintenance in trade for a lower monthly operating cost? Or would you prefer to set it and forget it, even if it costs a little more monthly to operate it?

These are questions I do not have the answers for. But questions I came up when considering my own system. But there are guys on this forum that have operated systems for many years that have good opinions and experiences to help answer those questions. All the good I can do you is help you ask the right questions. The answers need to come from those with more experience.

John

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