by Augusto
Air pump problem
3:06 am in electronic components, Getting Started by Augusto
I’m Augusto from Colombia.
I’m planning to do “3-plant airlift system”. And I have some doubts.
1° Does it work if I use 1-way Air pump instead of 2-way Air pump?.
2° What’s the purpose of the One-way air valves?.
Thanks….
I am not sure what you mean by 1 way air pump, but if it means that it only has one outlet, then I am using a pump like that without issue. The pump I have is super tiny (came with a water filter for a very small fish tank) and works great.
The one way valve that you put on the airline stops water from going into the pump if the pump fails for whatever reason. Water in your air pump = bad news.
1/ By one way and two way air pumps I assume you mean 1 outlet vs 2 outlet. I used a small inexpensive 2 outlet pump to begin with. It worked to some degree but it was very noisy,and iI could not regulate the flow of water lift. I tried attaching a regulator valve to the outlet but it vibrated really badly. In the end I upgraded to a more powerful one outlet air pump that has a built in flow regulator. I added a Tee fairly close to the reservoir bottles and made sure each branch to the bottles is the same length, that is important I found out through triat and error.
2/ The one way air (also known as check) valve is useless in my opinion, because if there is any backflow to the pump, it will be water, not air, and these valves are not designed well enough to protect the pump from water. I did buy them so I installed them a few inches away from the pump outlet and when I am draining my system that is where I disconnect the lines and drop them into a bucket. The only way to protect the pump from water is to make sure that when it is connected AT ALL TIMES the pump outlet remains higher that the top level of the reservoir water. You should be able to see the water level in the air lines when the pump is not running so it is easy to see if your pump is higher.
So my advice is to buy a good quality air pump with built in flow regulation dial. In my experience it doesn’t matter if it has one outlet or two. I hope this helps.
Not really sure what you mean by two way air pump. The instructions they have provided use air pumps with multiple outputs, for multiple columns. If you have just one outlet valve, that will be fine.
The one way air valves prevent water from going back into the air pump if there is a power failure or the pump is shut off. Its a fire hazard otherwise.
Place your pump higher than the reservoir and there’s no need for a one-way valve. You should never place an air-pump below the water line. Like Janet said, the water pressure might be too great for an air-check valve to handle, giving you a false sense of security.
Actually, most cheap aquarium pumps have a one-way valve built-in in order to work. Else the bellows will be sucking air back through the outlet.
This is good info about he pumps. I just bought a model 9902 (10 gal+) instead of the suggested 9903 (13 gal+) model of the PetCo brand air pump. I was wondering if I needed to exchange it for the larger one? Seems I do. Thanks in advance-
If you have a pmp with 2 outlets, and are only using one, you may improve the efficiency of the pump by closing the other outlet. Just put a piece of tube on it and cclamp it shut. A lot of these pumps have two outlets for each ‘motor’ and if they run ‘unbalanced’ regarding load, it can make them work poorly. It can also wear them out quicker…
I suggest you test the pump first before exchanging for a larger one. It seems that too powerful a pump will also not work. Again it depends on the height you’re trying to achieve and other factors. No harm testing if it works first.