Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Air Pumps

I have a small pond and run an air pump for about 6 hours in the middle of the night. I first started with the Blue Diamond ET80 and am now using the VEVOR 109L pump. I have the same problem with both, my pond is ~400' from the pump, so I can only put the aerator/bubbler down about 4' to get bubbles. If I go down to the desired 10', the pumps don't have enough power. I need more power and less CFM (I can run it longer). Any suggestions on a more powerful air pump? Thx guys.

I can’t help to recommend a different one, but my observation is diaphragm pumps don’t really have the ability to push air efficiently below 4ft despite the ratings. The air flow decreases substantially the lower you go. I have a diaphragm pump in my garden pond at 4ft, and it puts out maybe 1/4 the airflow it does at 2ft. That and the stones clog up with deposits easily as there isn’t enough airflow to prevent deposits from building up.

There are much stronger air pumps, but the few non diaphragm pumps I have seen are loud and should be housed in a barn or enclosure so you don’t need to listen to them, but should be protected from especially cold air if running them in the winter.

There is a sub forum on here about aeration specifically that you could mine for ideas and what other folks are using.

Thanks Mr. Squid,
That makes sense. I have an "air pump" coming from the Hydrahoist boat lift folks. I used to run such a rig to lift my boat and I recall that it's extremely noisy, but as you mentioned, maybe housed correctly, it might be tolerable. And if it flows correctly, I wouldn't have to run it as long to get the correct turnover. It seems it's always something....

Thanks again,
Danbob.

Look at a Gast 1/4 hp #0523 rotary vane pump.

+1 for esshup's comment. I have a Gast AT05 I run 300' to my pond with aerators 8' deep with an added 100' of sinking line.

Sounds like you need a pump with higher PSI, not just more CFM. Check out the Medo LA-80BN or Hakko 100L, they’re built for deeper applications and steady pressure. Also, consider upsizing your airline to reduce backpressure over that 400' run. Hope that helps!

thanks for the great comments, I'll check out the other pumps. I do have 1 1/2" pvc pipe for the 400' run, then I drop down to the ~3/4" weighted line. I bench tested the hydrohoist pump and can tell right off that it doesn't have the psi for the job.

thanks guys.

Last Post - Turns out that I had a severe dip in my line between the pump and the aerator. Those pumps are pulling in humid air and it's going underground which is cooler, causing condensation and I could hear water bubbling in my line. I found a spot to shorten my run and take out the dip and the same pump which struggled at 4' is easily doing 8-10' now. Took some digging, but I'm happy with the end result. Thanks for the help guys.

Danbob

Glad you found the problem!

It is a common problem that occurs in all types of pipelines transporting gases. I might have to write a separate post on solutions.