Water somehow getting into the air pump?!
10:55 pm in Uncategorized by Emily S Salmon
Hi everyone!
Has anyone else had trouble with water in their air pumps? I have a double air pump for one of my window farms, and both have check valves to prevent water going the wrong way… Not to mention it has been running constantly.
Yet, somehow, water has gotten into the pump and now it’s not working… I’m hesitant to even get another one unless I have any idea how this happened (they’re not exactly cheap…) It’s a Petco brand pump which I can’t find online now… Was it discontinued?
It’s been really humid here, but that shouldn’t affect the pump, right?
The other window farm pump (Tetra Whisper) is working just fine.
Thanks in advance for your insight!
I think you need to bring the 2 pumps higher than your reservoir. Also, the tubing supplied with the pumps is small bore (small diameter). This means that when they stop, and if the check valve is leaky, the airlift process can work in their tube, powered by the water that remains in the tubes going to the plants. So even if the pump IS higher, water can still get back to it. If you can attach larger diameter tubing to deliver air from the pump to the air needles or t-joint it will help prevent the airlift process from doing this. (I think this is very rare but it can occur).
Brian
Yep. @Brian_White is THE MAN when it comes to pumping know-how. Those all sound like excellent ideas.
-Britta