[Killietalk] Blower info

["Markus Brown" <TheBiologist at charter_net>]

"I'm looking for a blower for the fish house. I will have around 200-250
outlets when finished. Some tanks are 2' deep. I would appreciate knowing
what is currently the best out there.
I used to use Series 9 blowers which were really good."

     Tim

Tim
Having designed a few very large fish rooms and air lift systems for pond and lake aeration, I would like to chime in here. The first thing you can do is to calculate the amount of cfm (cubic feet per min) you would consume. On average a sponge filter will use .02-.06 cfm in operation. A large corner filter (box filter) will need .07-.09 cfm. determine how many of these you will need then do the math. The next step is to pick an air pump. I would suggest a Blower with that many outlets. Driving air that deep is something a well designed and sized blower can do for you. I have driven air 8 feet deep, using 25cfm using a blower. I suggest to look into the Sweetwater blowers from Aquatic Echo systems (1-877-347-4788) The noise factor will be a small issue in a room with 200+ tanks, all you should hear is the water boiling! Of course, I would put the blower in a room separate from your aquaria if possible to minimize the heat, moisture. These blowers are waranteed and I have yet to replace one after using them for over 16 years. As far as efficiency, here's an example:

Using the charts provided by Sweetwater: Blower Specs (at sea level, 68F, 60hz)
 Say you decide you need 200 outlets that require .08cfm and you need to drive this as deep as 24" of water, you need at least 18cfm total so you would use pump (s31) which is rated to deliver 21cfm at 40" of water and 28cfm at 30" of water. The rated full load, which is what you can use to determine cost effectiveness, is only 5.6 amps. Under 500 bucks.

One drawback can be space. Blowers work under low pressure, so it is very important that the pipe is sized appropriately to reduce friction! The example I provided would use 1.5" pipe, or even 2". With a 3 year warranty, one moving part, no maintenance other than cleaning the airlet and easily the best in the industry for blowers, I recommend looking into this.

Markus

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