Alita OEM airpump for sale

[cee]

I've upgraded skimmers and am going to mothball my huge countercurrent skimmer. I'll probably keep it for acrylic unless someone's interested. It's four feet tall and 6" in diameter.

But the real purpose of my post is to offer my Alita AL-60 pump. It's a monster, and can pump 2.4 cubic feet per minute at 2.2 psi of head. That's a whopping 3600 liters per hour at 5' of water depth! And it only draws 60 W and isn't as loud as one might think. You can see specs here:

http://www.alita.com/airpump/pi_040u_en.php

This would be good for someone with a pond desiring additional aeriation or someone with an aquaculture facility. I've had it about 4 months and bleed most of the air off because it's too much for my setup (driving 8 limewood airstones at 4' of depth). They go online for about $250 plus, but I'll let this one go for $120. I'll even include the 5-way PVC manifold I made with John Guest speed fittings if the buyer wants it.

Dave

 

[imsqueak]

Dave, do tell... which skimmer did you get? I recall that "making tiny bubbles" was something you had issues with.

 

[cee]

Actually, the air-stone driven counter-current skimmer has been working quite well, but alas, I like my toys I ordered a Pacific Coast RPS-3000 RC Skimmer as they've been getting very good reviews and I can't afford the H&S I really want. This is an 8" recirculating needlewheel skimmer that has air intakes comparable to Deltec/H&S skimmers. I'll let you know how it works and it should be running by the time of the June meeting. If no one wants the air pump locally (which I suspect is the case), I'll put it on the selling forum.

Dave

 

[Fishboy42]

Dave, could your old skimmer be used in-sump? I am in the stage of purchasing a skimmer for a new clown growout system and am curious about this. I was considering an ASM G4 (I'd really like a Deltec, but I have to be reasonable!), but still researching a bit. If your air pump has excess capacity, maybe I could also use it for air in the tanks (I will put one airstone in each of 16 tanks at 12" depth). The sump space I have for a skimmer is 24" by 23" by 12" deep (and 5' of "head room"). What kind of "normal load" would you say that skimmer could handle? I'm definitely looking for an overrated skimmer, as it's only 400 gallons but will have several thousand fish. Did you run ozone in it? (I'd like to) What are your thoughts?

If nothing else, the pump may be a good investment for me as I could probably run several systems with it rather than stringing together many smaller pumps, which is what I have been doing so far -- would it be easy to plumb the air from this pump like that?

Now if only I had some extra salt so I could fill this thing with water(!)

-Matt

 

[cee]

OK, I finally found it here:
http://www.aquadirect.com/store/product.php?productid=481&cat=205&page=1

It's the CR10, modified with 4 rigid airline tubes at the top to inject air into the limewood airstones. I added a "tee" at the bottom of the rigid tubing to put two stones on each rigid line, thus I can run 8 stones. I also added a gate valve on the return to regulate the water level. Stock it retails for $235, but if you wanted to purchase it with the air pump, I'd let the whole shebang go for $180, which is less than I've got invested in it. I sold one to just dave at the frag swap in January, which he's been using on his crab/snail tank and seems pleased. The total height with the collection cup is 46". Footprint is 8"X8". I'm sure the acrylic alone is worth more than the $60 differential, but I'll only sell the skimmer as part of the "package" if anyone's interested in the pump as well. Otherwise, I'll probably turn it into a monster skimmer someday when I get bored with the hobby to maintain my interest

The skimmer's rated to 1000 gallons according to CPR. It's all acrylic construction, except the rigid tubing, which I'm not sure about. The rigid airline might yellow w/ ozone, but shouldn't deteriorate (I've used it before w/ ozone). I'd recommend ozone-proof tubing to connect the airstones, though.

I think the pump would easily run 16 additional stones at 1' of head unless they're the micropore variety. The manifold I built has 4 outputs w/ speed fittings (3/8", I think) and 1 output with a 1/4" hose barb that I use for bleeding excess air through a small ball valve. I also drilled a small hole in it for a bleeder screw, but I can patch that with glue or you can easily repair with a PVC coupler, since the manifold is made out of PVC. The hose from the pump to the manifold is 3/4" I.D. tubing (maybe 5/8", can't remember for sure).

Oh, and Matt, the extra bucket of salt is yours anytime you'd like as we discussed previously. Sorry I forgot to bring it to Art's place.
Dave

 

[Fishboy42]

I'll take the skimmer and pump setup. It sounds like it will fit in with what I would like to do. What kind of supply pump will I need for it?

The salt thing wasn't directed at you Dave, I'm just anxious to get our salt order finished. I would gladly accept another bucket though

 

[cee]

Matt:

OK, it'll be available next week or you can get it during the meeting at my place. I'd get a Maxijet or similar powerhead to feed 1-1.5X total volume into the skimmer for optimum performance. I'll give you the old limewood airstones which are still cranking, but probably will need replacing in the next month or so. BTW, I've been running the skimmer externally, so it's water-tight, but will easily fit in your sump too.

Dave

 

[Fishboy42]

Seems to be skimming pretty good now. I started with a small water pump and recently changed to a larger one, but I think it was actually skimming better with ~100gph throughput, so I'm considering switching back. Even with the old airstones, it seems to be doing well, but there may be a lot of back-pressure on the pump, so I'll change them out soon. When I get the fittings, I'll hook the pump up for the airstones in the tanks, but I don't see any problem for the pump in powering them. Thanks again Dave!

 

[cee]

Looks good, Matt! Glad you're happy; I always worry people won't be pleased when I sell used equipment even though I go to great lengths to disclose the condition, performance, etc. That's a lot of skimmate in a relatively short period of time, so it must be working well for you.

Dave