New Grower Air pump issue.

[Sublime Rasta]

I am finishing up my first grow, and I have decided to upgrade some of my equipment for the next grow. I currently have a 6lpm pump for one 5 gallon bucket, and I have upgraded to an Elemental O2 950GPH (60lpm) pump for 6 buckets.

The air pump came with a plastic divider with 6 outlets. Each outlet feels like it puts out way more air than my old pump. I tested it out with an 8inch air stone and 3/16 black air line. My old pump has no problem powering one of these. I connected everything, double checked, and have zero air bubbles. I have to disable 4 outlets and combine 2 outlets to get air bubbles that are slightly better than my old one. I'm stumped. It doesn't feel, or sound, like a lemon air pump. Any ideas?

 

[Fisherboy]

It might be something to do with the fact that you are now using 6dwc buckets and the pressure from the water in these combined are prob more than the pump can generate to push the air in, if you see what I mean. Got to be something to do with the pressure the pump can output not the volume of air it pumps . think they are rated at normal atmospheric pressure so the deeper you put them the less ooomph they have, ie 6 times the weight of 5gallon of water.If my logic is way off someone will no doubt be along to correct me shortly. Am I having a stoned moment?:smokebuds:

Edit, just re read your post, IMO lemon pump. Said I was stoned!!!

 

[RebelRoy]

Did you find the answers you where looking for SR?

if not let me know with a pm or sumtn.. and i`l connect you with someone that knows this stuff... (couse i have no clue. lol ^^ )
:smokebuds:

 

[Sublime Rasta]

Thanks for the responses. I have tried new air stones and air line, but it didn't make a bit of difference. Assuming each outlet has equal air distribution, it should be 10 liters per minute per outlet. I tried every outlet and it didn't make a difference. If you have someone who can help Rebel I would definitely appreciate it. I was planning on returning it on Tuesday.

 

[wwwillie]

Don't know if this is helpful, but I know that with a one outlet air pump I always needed valves to balance things out. Was like that when I had aquariums and now I have a cheap air pump to aerate 3, 1 gallon water jugs using 3 airstones. Without valves in the airlines to adjust airflow one would always be off and one would bubble furiously, etc. also the depth of the stone in the water would influence bubbling. With a three way valve I was able to adjust between them and it works fairly well.

 

[Sublime Rasta]

It came with a cheap plastic splitter, otherwise known as a gang valve or manifold. I used air line to disable outlets by connecting both ends to the plastic splitter outlets until 2 were left. If I connect 2 separate air stones to the remaining 2 outlets they barely produce more bubbles than my 6lpm pump. If I try using 3 outlets the bubbles are barely visible. A friend has a hydrofarm with less lpm, and he powers 8 buckets no problem. I think I am just going to return it and go with a hydrofarm pump from Amazon.

 

[Son of Hobbes]

Possible the air pump is failing; sounds like (at first glance) maybe it's a bad compressor. You could always take it into an aquarium store and see if they can take a look at it for you.

Is there water in your lines? Are you using checks in-line to make sure you aren't getting flow back? You aren't going to be splitting pressure evenly with a manifold alone; you need to have valves on there like wwwillie stated to control the air flow through each inlet.

Try this; take off the manifold setup and just do a straight line in to the pump with the air stone and toss the stone in some water. If it bubbles; we just eliminated a suspect problem. If it doesn't bubble, we just found the problem.

Also, are these used air stones you are using or brand new? Check to see if you're building up mineral deposits on your stone (or in your water lines) from your source of water. My aquarium stones get pretty scummy over time; sometimes I'll have to scrape em down a little bit (I blame the fish.)

What size line are you using? 1/4"?

Anyways just some ideas. Let us know what you decide to do and what happens! :karma Cloud:

 

[Sublime Rasta]

Used 1/4 od and 3/16 id air line. The air stone is 8 inches and brand new. I tested the air stone with my 6 lpm pump, and it provides plenty of bubbles. I disabled 4 outlets on the manifold, and used the remaining 2 outlets to power 2 buckets with 2.5 gallons of water. The bubbles in these 2 buckets are equal to the bubbles provided by my 6 lpm pump powering 1 bucket. This makes no sense if the new pump is pushing out 60 lpm. If I try using 3 outlets, the bubbles become barely visible.

I think if the manufacturer provides a 6 outlet manifold, then I should be able to use all 6 outlets. I purchased a 70 lpm hydrofarm with an 8 outlet chrome manifold. I will test the chrome manifold on the elemental o2 951gph pump before I return it. I will post the results in a few days.

Thanks again for the help everyone.

 

[wwwillie]

Ya sounds like a lemon. Sorry to hear that, hope it all turns out ok in the end! Looking forward to your report of a positive resolution.

 

[Sublime Rasta]

I got my hydrofarm in today, and it was a huge difference. The chrome manifold did not make any difference on the elemental o2 951GPH pump, however. The manufacturer, elemental solutions, e-mailed me and stated the 951GPH model had a release issue. The issue has since been corrected, but they believe I received one of the lemons. They were kind enough to offer me a replacement, but I already went with the hydrofarm. Thanks again for the help everyone.