Need a New Air Pump...

[Osage_Winter]

First, the Top Fin bubble wands at the back of my 60 gallon quit working, and I thought it was from being clogged with diatoms and algae, so I replaced them with a Marineland 48" flexible snaking wand. Both were hooked up to my Tetra Whisper 60 air pump. Now, the Marineland is quitting as well, with little to no bubbles coming out, so I am suspecting my Tetra pump...

I need a suggestion for a good, solid and powerful air pump to run this 48" bubble wand -- it seems the "rated for 60 gallons" Tetra was just a load of nonsense...can anyone recommend a good one? I know Rena makes some, but they're expensive, aren't they?

 

[j2112j]

I'm using a Topfin 4000, rated for up to 80 gallons, in a 36 gallon.
It has 2 outlets and a dial to adjust flow. $22.00 Canadian.
It is a bit noisy, seems durable (solid) but I have nothing else
to compare it too.

1 outlet is running a 6" airstone.
1 outlet is using a t-valve running 2 small airstones.
Both lines have check valves.

With the dial set to minimum, it is still way too powerfull for my tank, with a depth of 21". I clamped the tubing a bit, to reduce the flow but I do believe this thing would be usefull up to 80 gallons, if not more.

If your lfs has a good return policy, just try a few in your price range and return the ones you don't like ?

 

[Osage_Winter]

I'm using a Topfin 4000, rated for up to 80 gallons, in a 36 gallon.
It has 2 outlets and a dial to adjust flow. $22.00 Canadian.
It is a bit noisy, seems durable (solid) but I have nothing else
to compare it too.

1 outlet is running a 6" airstone.
1 outlet is using a t-valve running 2 small airstones.
Both lines have check valves.

With the dial set to minimum, it is still way too powerfull for my tank, with a depth of 21". I clamped the tubing a bit, to reduce the flow but I do believe this thing would be usefull up to 80 gallons, if not more.

If your lfs has a good return policy, just try a few in your price range and return the ones you don't like ?

Thanks for getting back, j2...

My Tetra Whisper 60 also seems "well built" and boasts dual airlines -- but I'm only using one, to run the 48" Marineland bubble wand, so it should theoretically be pumping out full power for the bubbler. And still, every wand I hook up to this thing ends up not putting out bubbles at all after awhile, as my Marineland is doing now.

The problem is, I really don't know if it's the wands themselves getting clogged with debris, or if it's the pump -- this Marineland wand I'm running now isn't that old, so it shouldn't be accumulating debris so quickly, which makes its failure even more of a mystery.

For what it's worth, I'd like to stay away from anything Top Fin (PetSmart's house brand) because I've been burned in the past with their stuff. Is there another make or model you can recommend, or do you only have experience with Top Fin?

 

[HN1]

Coralife and RENA both make good pumps. Disregard the aquarium rating and look for a cfm rating. Why are you running an air wand? Aesthetics?

 

[Osage_Winter]

Actually, the problem of the wand and bubbles has been solved -- based on advice I received from another forum, I blasted the airline tubing with some compressed air and blew around the actual pump's chassis; when I did this, the wand was full of aggressive, powerful bubbles unlike anything I've ever seen...so I'm not sure if it was dust in the airline or something blocking the intake on the pump side (I actually switched the positioning of the tube from the pump, running the airline from the other line out, so maybe one of this Tetra's lines were a bit wonky). Either way, the bubbles are coming out, fuller than ever...

BUT...

This has introduced a new set of issues in that even with three 100ml bags of Purigen running in the filters, the extreme bubbles now coming from this Marineland wand are getting sucked into the filters' intakes, causing the impellers to chop them up into microbubbles which is making my tank look like 200 tablets of Alka Seltzer have been dropped in...I know the water is clear as it was before the wand started working again and as I said, I'm running three bags of Purigen (and, I did a PWC last night or the night before) but now since the microbubbles have been introduced, the tank appears "fizzy" and "misty" although there's no particulate matter in the water column...

And yes, I have added the wand for aesthetics along the back wall (as well as to introduce some good exchange properties at the surface for the goldfish).