I haven't been about much lately as busy at work etc. Was having a catch up on the forum last week and came accross Janes pond build using air uplifts, and then came accross Bobs post about the cost of bills etc, which got me thinking-Emma would kill me if we got a bill like that!. Well had today off work so thought id have a play with air uplifts etc. Ive always known about using air to move water but never thought that a few bubbles could be more effective than a pump.
So popped out this morning to get some air line, air stones and a manifold. Unfortunately i only had 32mm pipe and 50mm lying around (will experiment with 40mm later in the week) First i played around with airstones-i found the small cheap ones work best(about 1inch long) Next i tried a 90 degree bend on the end compared to a t piece and found the t piece to be more effective.
I then compared 32mm pipe against 50mm, using different numbers of uplifts all from a 70ltr air pump to see which was more efficent. This is what i found (aprox 1 inch head ):
50mm pipe:
Number of Uplifts - Litres Per Hour
2 - 5684
4 - 5837
8 - 9818
32mm pipe:
Number of Up lifts - Litres Per Hour
4 - 6000
6 - 10,800
8 - 12,000
10 - 10,800
I was amazed! With a 70 ltr air pump powering 8 uplifts i could achieve 12000 litres an hour with a 35watt air pump Compare that to an aquamax 12000 at 200 watts Now i known there are limitations-you cant lift much head so no good for showers or water falls, but for a gravity fed filter its perfect. And not only do you save 165 watts but you are adding 70 ltrs of air to the water at the same time!
Im sure with a bit more experimenting it can be made more effective, im going to try 40mm pipe next. Will also have to play around with the length of the up lift pipe and the height of the air stone in the uplift pipe!
Cheers Andy
even japanese
