Suggestions for air pump

[riparks]

Hey Telkwa,

I wanted to let you know that I had a totally different experience than you did. I am in the process of doing major changes to the filtration to my pond and had to to a 50% water change today so I could get the water level low enough to dig out my prefilter and replace it with what I hope will be a better one. The water level was down to a little over 2 feet and I figured this was the best time to put the aerator in so I could get in the pond and adjust the position. Anyway, once I got it where I wanted it and got out of the pond, my fish LOVED it. The only way I can think to describe it is that they were body surfing. They intentionally swam to it and I could almost hear them saying "wee, wee, wee" as they were surfing, lol, they swam back to do it over and over again. Like you, I did have a 2-3 inch column of air bubbles but my fish love it.

I placed the aerator between the waterfall and the bottom drain and immediately noticed that all the debris on the surface was pushed towared the skimmer. I am sure once everything is up and running again there will be a HUGE difference in the efficiency of my pond set up!!

I am also impressed with my Hakko air pump, it is an extremely well built and powerful machine. I bought mine, along with the diffuser and hosing,and several other things from a member of this forum called DoDad and am100% satisfied with everything. If you need assistance, I would recommend him.

 

[Telkwa]

hey -
Glad to hear you're happy with it. I'm guessing the 60 uses the same casting as the 40. One stout unit, eh? Makes our previous bubbler look and feel like a toy.

Do you have koi or goldies? I emailed Matala warehouse (Hakko is a Matala product) asking about controlling with a dimmer. The gal who wrote back said that koi will actually play in the bubbles. Our goldfish aren't so adventurous.

Oh, yeah, she also said that putting a device such as a dimmer ahead of the pump would void the warranty. I'll have to look into this a bit more. As you know if you've opened an air pump, the operation is simple. A couple of magnets take advantage of the expanding/collapsing AC field. There are no fancy electronics, or a motor, or etc. I haven't looked inside the Hakko, but expect to find they have not reinvented the wheel...

I'll second your comments about sweeping some of the pond muck up. Even though I'd been scraping the pond with our net, the Hakko unearthed leaves and algae.

 

[riparks]

Yes, it is a well built little machine, I'm impressed with it. As you said in a previous post, I was willing to pay more for quality.

I have koi, goldfish, comets and a shubunkin. The biggest koi was the first one swimming through it an the rest followed the leader. They have always played in the waterfall.

I am not mechanically inclined and probably won't open it up any more that I have to, lol.

 

[Telkwa]

I took a peek inside the Hakko. Wow. What a difference in build quality between that and the Pondscape. I'll disassemble both of them, take some pictures, and post back.

 

[CometKeith]

Telkwa, I use my aerator all winter. It keeps a hole in the ice in the winter and also it keeps the water well oxygenated. I have heard of fish kills where a pond has been blanketed by snow and the fish didn't get enough oxygen. I also use it throughout the year. I think that keeping a healthy concentration of O2 is beneficial to the health of your fish, especially in the hot summer months when the O2 may get depleted at night and by the way my goldies love to play in the bubbles from the air pump! My aerator is a large round ball which seems to work better than the small cone shaped ones and the local raccoons don't eat the bigger ones!

 

[addy1]

I keep mine running winter and summer, right now I have 5 discs in the main pond and one in the lotus pond running.

 

[viggen]

I planned on using a T valve so I can adjust the amount of air going to the diffuser, I see the manufacturer also suggests using a vent to releive excess backpressure. I purchased the HK120 for my larger pond which I haven't installed yet & I need a air pump for my smaller pond. My actual water depth is only 30 inches & the pond is around 3500 gallons..... should I get the HK40 or HK25?

 

[crsublette]

Good stuff here. My question is about compressor's noise.

Are these compressors that ya'll are talking about very loud ??

I am going to have to put my compressor near my backyard porch where I don't have any closet / small building to store it.

My current one is LOUD. Heh, I will be relaxing on the porch; after a few beers, I forget the compressor is there and then it turns on, freak'n me out. It is really starting to irritate me, lol.

Are there quiet compressors or a way to make them quiet ??

 

[addy1]

I don't use a compressor for air, well do use on to fill tires, but do have a pond aerator. It runs constantly and not that noisy

here is a bunch on ebay

http://www.ebay.com/sch/items/?_nkw...udhi=&_sop=12&_fpos=&_fspt=1&_sadis=&LH_CAds=

 

[crsublette]

Aaaahh, good deal, thx addy

 

[Telkwa]

Whether you call it a pump or a compressor, it's doing the same thing. Pushing air. The biggest difference from a functional standpoint is that you can deadhead your typical pond air pump/bubbler with your thumb. Try that - no, wait, don't try that - with a real air compressor. We always get warned at work that you should never put an air gun against your skin and pull the trigger. Supposedly you can blow air thru your skin. Which would at the very least hurt, and could possibly kill you. So we're told. I haven't tried it.

Your standard shop air compressor uses one or more pistons and cylinders and valves to compress air to at least 100 psi or so. Really powerful industrial compressors are often screw-type, like a dragster supercharger. We have both where I work.

I still haven't gotten around to taking pictures of the insides of the Hakko, but every bubbler I've looked at uses the same basic principle. Magnets are utilized to create movement from the expanding/collapsing electrical field caused by alternating current (AC) grid power. The movement pushes (typically) two, or four, bellows back and forth. It's a very simple, cheap, but not particularly powerful mechanism. The Hakkos are called "line" compressors and that's why I wanted to see what they looked like inside.

I wish I had a way to communicate to you how loud the HK40 is. Unless we both had calibrated decibel meters I don't know how we'd do it. The small Pondscape pump we had before was noisy enough to be distracting inside our shop. Not only loud, but an annoying buzz/hammering sound. The HK40 pushes WAY more air and makes almost no noise at all compared to the Pondscape. And it's a softer kind of whoosh instead of the machine-gun rattle the Pondscape made. Even though it's the same basic principle inside. Magnets and expanding/collapsing current. I plugged the HK40 in with the lid off and it's actually quite loud. Amazing how well the metal enclosure muffles the racket. If you built a small enclosure over it and glued some speaker foam to the inside I imagine the Hakko would be very non-intrusive.

I read something in the Hakko instructions about putting a relief valve in, or a valve cracked partway open. I didn't know what to think of this. I just paid all that money for some bubbles, and now you want me to blow some of it to atmosphere??

viggen, I'd say it depends on what sort of emitter you're going to use, but our HK40 is making more than enuf bubbles with one of those EPDM emitters that I linked to way back in the beginning for our 2500 gal. pond. If I had money to throw around I'd get a second emitter just to spread out the volcano of bubbles. We've got whitecaps on the far shore because of the turbulence! Well, OK, that's exaggerating a bit. But the water surface was placid with the Pondscape bubbler on high. With the HK40 the water surface is 'lumpy' so that you can't get a good look at the fish unless they come near to the surface.

Something else to look at - check out the reported output. Some will be in liters/minute, smaller pumps such as the Pondscape 4 might be some volume per hour. And you may have to convert cubic feet to liters or vice versa. The HK40L is 40 liters/minute. In our pond, with the emitter at about 2' depth, that's a healthy froth of bubbles. If I'd taken a bit more time to analyze the Pondscape's reported output I probly woulda bought the smaller Hakko instead. But I just took a guess.

 

[addy1]

I am using a pondmaster 100, it also puts out a ton of air, not that noisy either.

 

[crsublette]

Excellent. I just got the Hakko HK-25L and got it going.

It is QUIET; actually, with all the waterfall and fountain water splashing action, I do not hear the aerator at all and it is sitting right next to me on my patio. Then again, probably cause I can't hear well from always working around these loud machines.

I am very impressed with how much air it pushes out of a 3/8" hose. I have connected the aerator to two 6" air stones, also feeding air to my little caverns, feeding air to my filter, and I still have to relieve some air so that it is not too strong out of my air stones. The aerator really does create a column of air-water the gushes up almost like having one of those submersible bubbler things. When I open the air all the way to my air stones, it looks crazy.

Anyone know of a good diffuser that is long like a tube?? like what ya see for aquariums but for pond use.

 

[addy1]

Here is a link to a few

http://www.lagunakoi.com/Air-Diffusers-Pond-Aeration-Air-Pumps-sc-103.html

Sissy took a piece of pvc and put holes in it, I took a piece of irrigation tubing and put small holes in it, works great.

 

[sissy]

I put pea gravel ( to weigh it down ) in the pvc and 2 end caps one with a hole drilled in it to put the tubing into and tubing has to fit in tight but not to tight .I still am trying to find something i can use as adapter to clamp or screw into the pvc that i can clamp the aerator hose to it .I tried small fittings ,but they did not work .I did what addy did also and sorta like the floating one too ,so have both going .One for air to just keep top water moving and the one down deeper but the hose does work loose from that one once in awhile and i have to get the net to scoop it out .The holes in both are just tiny pin holes and the one that floats the holes are only on the bottom of the ring .