What is the aerator to buy?

[BennyLava]

Wait a minute, I must be confused here. All I have seen is those little fish tank aerators, but I thought the concept was basically the same. You have an air pump, pushing air through a tube, that you have connected to an air stone that is underwater. Why do you need something else under there? Can't you just have your aerator on land, and your tube and airstone underwater?

 

[bsr8129]

That's all you need the post that dodad showed was the air stone that goes onthe bottom they are sometimes called a membrane difusor

 

[DoDad]

To get the full benefit of air in your pond it must be on the bottom.
I installed the one I posted yesterday and is working great.
The base beneath the diffuser is filled with sand to keep it on the bottom.
You will also need a weighted air hose so it won't float either.

 

[BennyLava]

Ok so basically that thing you are talking about (the difuser) is just the outlet where the air actually spews forth into the water. But why bother with that when all you need is one of those circular air stones from petsmart?

 

[bsr8129]

It will give u better dispersion of air. But u can defiantly use the ones from petsmart I have 2 in my pond

 

[DoDad]

I installed the single diffuser and base a couple of days ago and it works great pics later.

Uh oh, that's not good. We've only been running it about two months right now, at about 2.5 foot depth. Did the diaphragm(s) blow out? Or did it just break down and quit running altogether?

I imagine that most of you know this, but the deeper you set the stones in the water, the more stress on the little diaphragms inside the unit.

I've looked inside the toy aerators we'd bought previously. The mechanics are very simple. Two small pieces of spring metal with magnets attached to the ends (kinda looks like a tuning fork) are energized by a coil that has your grid AC power going thru it. The AC power rises and collapses at 60 Hz in the US and 50 Hz most other places, pulling the little tuning fork arms back & forth. The arms push and pull on the rubber diaphragms, which pump air. Sooner or later the diaphragms tear and that's when they stop pushing air. So if your pump is still making noise but not air you should be able to get new diaphragms.

If it's not making noise or air that's a different story...

DoDad, thanks for the pic of the single diffuser unit. That looks like the cat's meow.

 

[Telkwa]

Benny, another thing to consider is some of these high-end diffusers claim to have lower back pressure than the cheap stones. I don't know if there's really anything to that claim, but if there is that would be good - you'd get a little more bang for your buck.

 

[BennyLava]

Benny, another thing to consider is some of these high-end diffusers claim to have lower back pressure than the cheap stones. I don't know if there's really anything to that claim, but if there is that would be good - you'd get a little more bang for your buck.

So that would mean that your pump would last longer, correct? Cause it wouldn't have to work so hard?

 

[bsr8129]

The diaphram will but depending on which one u get the diaphram is as cheap as 10 bucks. The diffusors are rather expensive compared to an airstone