20w or 40w commercial Aerator pump with 4x5g buckets ?

3 stones x4 buckets seemed like stretching it with the GH pump I bet it rocks the water real nice using 4x 1 stone.

Having the the Pumps off the floor is good advice , had a stoned thought to sit them on a cinder block on the floor.

Both the GH and HF pumps are lacking filters , GH pump breaths from a hole on its top that I want to tape a filter over. I will have a look at the HF pump and see what can be done maybe tape a filter to it as well.

My 20 year old 6w adjustable air pump has a small cleanable filter on its top that looks easy enough to replicate.

What happens is the air stones get packed with dust after some years use without a filter ..
 
Mine GH's have been on the floor in my spare room their whole life and have never had any dust issues.

I do keep everything pretty clean in there. But it is hard to see why you would need a filter on them unless it is real dusty where you will have them.
 
I like to keep it simple.

If you turn on the pump and put your finger over that hole you will see it is not what you think it is.

My guess it is there to cool the motor.

But it is not where it gets most it's air to pump from for sure.
 
I don't think I will ever have a heat issue after you mention this , I can keep the tent at 75* by adjusting airflow.

I am expecting the cool air being pumped from just outside the tent will drop the buckets temperature lower yet , being in the tent helps with the plan with two different environments one a cool basement room.

Each bucket will have 2 gal of air threw it a minute , it should transfer the cool to the buckets , my hopes are high.

DukeO said:
I have been running 12 buckets on 3 GH pumps with one big stone per bucket for three years in buckets with temps up to 78-80f without any kind of issue. Most of the time they run 71-76f. But in the summer it gets harder to keep them there.


The GH pump puts off very little heat. Almost none to the lines. I keep the pumps on the floor outside the tents.
Click to expand...
 
Sounds like you have a great setup going there.

My guess is you will do real well with it.

Just be careful not to over feed at first.

When your running z7 you need to cut the nutes a little.

I put 4agls of water into a 5gal bucket and mix like it was three.

Then I just keep adding more when the DWC bucket's water gets pretty low. So it keeps a good mix and I only do a full change out at the switch and when I flush at the end. The z7 should keep everything clean the whole way through.

Good Luck!
 
I looked into z7 I can get it from Amazon.ca but it will cost me $70 about twice what it costs for AN's Sensizym


Found the Hydrofarms pumps pressure rating 2.319 psi for the 4 outlet , 2.464 psi for the 8 outlet model.


The manual mentions "Special notes clean debris from air filter located on bottom of unit" not sure if its for this pump or the next model up.

The reviews are all over the place on the pump some love it some hate it i suspect some are not assembled correctly ..
 
The ActiveAqua air pump arrived today and its quiet like real quiet , makes a little buzz humm at full tilt bogey but still very quiet I have a dBi meter once the air stones get here I will run a noise test and post the dBi numbers for both the GH and HF pumps.

Some reviewers of the pump found it very noisy they must of got faulty units as this one is right next to dead quiet.

With out the hoses the HF is clearly the quieter of the two pumps although it has a lower psi and airflow rating so its no real surprise.

Side note , Pump has a round white filter on its bottom , no modding necessary

I now suspect the GH pump has a filter hidden in its base somewhere , I will try to find it
 
The GH pump is plumbed in and pumping , it quiets down after its hooked up to stones and has plenty of power.

Its a workhorse

Its Plumbed to eight 120 x 20mm stones , two per bucket with a good effect.

I tried 4 stones at first it made for a very strong central Jacuzzi so added a splitter and 2nd stone per bucket to spread out the power.

Works great with 8 stones , the bubbles are smaller and each bucket has two upwells instead of one a win win.

later this month when I fire up the cheaper HF pump I will post back with a review and report on its performance.

I want to add that the GH pump is a serious pump where as the HF pump is a cheaper more hobby oriented pump.

With that said I bought a 2nd HF pump in case I felt like mo air down the road or the first one fails.
 
Its a bargain of a price , I hope the 2nd one I snapped up is as quiet as the first as its incredibly quiet , about half the dbi compared to the GH pump (still to be tested) which is not a loud pump to begin with.

So far the GH air pump is working well on its own , its maintaining the buckets temperature at 68-69 degrees with plenty of bubbles. It's on the floor on a small brick and slice of foam outside the tent where it breaths cool floor air.
 
This placement is working out fine so far , I will move it to a cooler location if it gets too warm when more lights are being used

IMG_0036139.JPG


I noticed the pump was getting warm when using 4 stones with 8 stones its been running cool , a little louder but cool.

I used the ActiveAqua Pump to aerate a fresh mix , it pushes pretty good especially for its price and its nice having the volume control , had a few gallons left in the reserve so just left it on simmer. Very handy.

I would say its around half the GH pumps power. I have not tested them together yet so who knows.. I will post a side by side photo to confirm or deny that claim.
 
IMG_014356.JPG
IMG_014253.JPG
Picked up a new pump only this time to aerate and keep a resivior cool. Both the gh and active aquaactive pumps are working wellI but for this job wanted a single bigger pump with plenty of power , the Jecod pa-60 fit the bill. 38 watts 65 litres minute 5 psi , costs $100. But what sealed the deal was the low 35 db noise level. Should be here next week , I am just finishing plumbing and drilling a rdwc resivior now. I will post back with usage results , its a big pump at 9 lbs shipping. Side note : it has a removable air filter under the blue cap
 
2nd day running the pump I can say with full confidence this Pump ROCKS

Its extremely powerful and extremely quiet , about as quiet as the $30 AquaActive pump which is stupid quiet.

I kid you not I cannot hear it run , even the bubbles are quiet odd I know but true.

IMG_022054.JPG


It pushes the sludge type foam off to one side for removal


My aeration search is over I found the Pump that I should of bought at first. Oh well

I removed the AquaActive pump and put its 4 stones on the GH pump in the buckets and took the 8 stones off the GH pump to use on the PA-60 pump until the large stones arrive.

After doing the Math eight of the current 4.7" stones flow 56 LPM which worked perfect on the 65Lpm pump

Math you say ? found info that stated every inch of the inch diameter medium pore alumina air stones will pass .10 Cu.ft of air

1 cu.ft converted to l/pm is 28.3 l/pm


It will aerate the whole system , once more stones arrive I will run line to the buckets and remove the GH pump

IMG_022152.JPG
 

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