help me understand airpumps

[shifty51008]

First off if spelling and such are off im sorry as i am posting this from my phone.

Anyway im setting up my breeding tanks and such and am just using misc. airpumps that i had from back in the day, most only say what gal tanks they are good for and such. So after looking at my setup:

2-3 5 gal pals for rotifers
2 setups for brine shrimp
2 10 gal fry tanks
2 20 gal growout tanks

I am looking for maybe 1 pump to run all these rather than 4 seperate pumps. I was looking at fosters and smith and saw one that does 2.3 cfm but that really doesnt help me figure out if that will be big enough or not. So any help would be great.

Tia

 

[mwilliams62]

You also need heaters for each tank, air pumps only for the buckets and the fry tanks you will need the hob filters for the grow out tanks sponge filters for the fry tanks cant remember which stage you use those in. Ammonia badges, bubble wands, air stones, airline tubing, ridged tubing and the most important item almost forgot lots of salt mix you will be doing lots of water changes.
Hopefully others will chime in with items I have not listed.

 

[shifty51008]

Yeah i already have all the heaters, sponge filters, ammonia badges, thermometers, and such. Im just trying to figure out if a 2.3cfm airpump will be big enough to run the setup i have now so i can switch the 4 airpumps i have now to 1.

Also i do have hob filters i can use but was planning on using sponge filters instead in the grow out tanks,any reason why 1 would be better than the other?

 

[ernieq]

I would get like a whisper 100. It has two outlets. hook up each outlet to a 3 way valve, use 2 to drive your accessories and 1 to bleed out excess air flow. You don't really want to have everything running out of 1 valve setup because as the air stones get clogged, you'll start getting all kinds of uneven flow. Splitting them into two gang valve groups you will have an easier balance act.

Also for growout you are going to need something more robust that some sponge filters. Depending on the amount of fry you end up putting there, the bio load could be really high. My current situation is a 55g tank with about 200 juveniles (I've sold around 70 or so by now) 7 to 10 month olds and I'm running two sponge filters rated at 40 gallons, a HOB filter rated for a 50 gallong tank and sump with wet dry filtration and a skimmer rated for 100 gallons. Even with all that, the ph is near impossible to keep in the 8 range because of all the waste they create (the best I can do consistently is around 7.8, so I pull out the ones to be sold a few days in advance and put them in a 10 gallon tank to slowly increase their PH to the "desired" 8.2 for the LFS. I feed them twice a day about 2 teaspoons each time of either TDO, NLS, or ocean nutrition pellets.

 

[shifty51008]

Thanks both for the help.

Looks like my extra skimmer, 30 gal sump, 46 gal and 30 gal tanks are finally gonna get some use lol. I new i kept alot of my old equipment and such for a reason.