Emergency Air Pump

[EddieJ]

I am looking to add 2 B11 Silent Air pumps to my 90 gallon reef. Anyone have some good setup ideas as to where and how to run the air lines? I thought I read somewhere NOT to run a airstone on the end of the line. What I am looking to accomplish is to keep the tank alive if the power fails while I am at work. Will 2 air pumps provide enough oxygen without any circulation for 6 hours? I have a UPS but my Hydor 4s will not run on it. I end up putting a Maxijet 1200 in for emergency circulation when I am home, but this is a manual process.

 

[Mike31154]

Yes, 2 sounds good for a 90. I have one in my 75 but should probably get another. Fortunately I haven't had a long enough power outage while I've been away to test the set up. I simply have a long piece of rigid air tubing attached to the flex tubing. This is positioned so it is near the bottom of the tank just above the substrate. An airstone will plug up over time just sitting in the tank with no air going through it, so when the power does go out, it may not work at all. Make sure you anchor the rigid air tube somehow so it doesn't rise to the surface when the pump kicks in.