Above the Tavern with Parka!

[Parka]

Parka , Self Reporting with Gusto & Vigor and the three of us have Fantastic News concerning the Czech style airlift! My Inner Junkie is all excited too, he's smokin my shoe laces!

I tested the pvc version vs airstone in the Mighty Chicago and keep in mind, the same pump that I used is already running 13 large air stones, 8 in the Chicago and 5 in the Cleveland and the Czech version once again had more than twice the flow of the typical air stone uplift tube. The Czech style filled a liter of water in less than 4 seconds! It took almost 10 seconds for the air stone to fill the same container. The Czech style was so strong that it was lifting up and spitting out the pea gravel substrate, Holy Smokes!!!

And in more exciting news, in the meantime I was curious how well the 40 watt air pump would drive both tanks so I swapped out the 55 watt with the 40 watt and still got those great results. These Czech airlift tube are FOR REAL,

Before I had the 55 watt air pump, I was using the 40 watt on the Chicago and the 18 watt on the Cleveland. When I got the 55 watt I also bought a pair of 3/8" valve air splitters for the reason to run all three tanks with one air pump. And now it looks the 40 watt air pump will be up to the task. I have realized that using multiple air stones really does create a LOT of water movement, please don't underestimate how beneficial water movement is to the health of a tank!

On the left is the Czech style airlift tube, air stone on the right.




I'm using the air pump in the middle, when I have all three tanks set up, I may go with the larger 55 watt pump, TBD!





I did the test using the 40 watt air pump that is already driving 13 of these 2" ball air stones, the keep the surface roiling!




After the test was over I wedged the new high performance Czech style in the Cleveland with a sponge, just because. Good Evening!

 

[Parka]

Parka , Self Report on the Hard Working Akron!

I finally got after it today, I removed almost all the pea gravel today and it was not nearly as difficult as I had been thinking. It only took about two hours tops, including short breaks. Now, tomorrow I will remove the lava rocks and then it will be ready to move across the basement. With a pry bar I will lift the stand and tank together and place a bunch of dowel rods underneath and start pushing!

When I originally filled the gravel, I didn't sift or rinse it at all, I just dumped bags of Home Depot pea gravel straight from the bag. The bagged pea gravel has a bunch of sand and smaller pebbles in it and so when I used the same gravel in the Chicago and the Cleveland, I sifted out the sand and finer gravel and I plan to sift this gravel this time, before I use it again. I have some sifters that I made with different sized mesh and it doesn't take long at all to dry sift.

After it's sifted I will rinse the pea gravel but I won't be rinsing the lava rocks. They are still wet and bio loaded so I'm hoping the tank cycles real fast.

I plan on replacing all my water pumps and use air to run the under gravel filters in all three of my tanks. The Chicago will be last, it is using a 170 watt pump, the Cleveland WAS using a 120 watt pump and the pump in the Akron is 100 watts plus my outdoor pool pond is using a 100 watt water pump. My outdoor pool ponds will all be using air with the Czech style airlifts, I am really stoked about these airlifts!

So indoor tanks will be going from 390 watts of water pumps to 55 watts of one air pump, and the outdoor pool pond will go from 100 watts to 18 watts, and those water pumps were running 24/7, I better get busy!

It was SO much easier than I anticipated!



I like to Show Off! Looky here what I done did, All By My Lonesome, Clumsy & Crippled, I STILL Kick Azz! Good Evening!

 

[Sassafras]

Amazing! That kind of reduction in power consumption is very significant. If my math is correct, based on your comparison trial, at one liter each 4 seconds, that airlift would be moving 238 gph. Will you be able to run enough airlifts with the 55w air pump to match the flow you were getting from your conventional water pump?

As I was reading your tank moving strategy, all of a sudden I started hearing this music,

Rollin', rollin', rollin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin'

Keep movin', movin', movin'
Though they're disapprovin'
Keep them dogies movin'
Rawhide!

 

[Parka]

Rollin', rollin', rollin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin'

Keep movin', movin', movin'
Though they're disapprovin'
Keep them dogies movin'
Rawhide!

Performed and covered by The Lonesome Hobos! It's on the B side of their smash cross genre hit, 'If I Had Me a Hammer and a Ladder...