After decades of running some form of aquarium air pumps I am getting the sense that maybe I have been missing out. Could tech have advanced?
My current 2-3 year old random pet store pump is slowly loosing steam making me think of a replacement.
The Hagen Maxima R has always been my go to in the past, good flow, cheap price. Those don’t seem to exist anymore.
To the question at hand, what pumps do you use, why do you like them?
You served well, RIP
I like this one one a lot. Totally overkill for my bubble cloner. I think it was…$50?
All the best
Edit: $40
That looks like the Haileas that are sold here across the pond. Might be the same maker.
Quiet enough?
Same maker different brand I guess.
I’d say it’s pretty quiet. The little rubber feet help.
I’m using the same pump but I combined the lines for a more powerful pump for my 2 bucket set up. Works great so far.
I guess you could just drop 2 airstones in each bucket but I am using the large disk stones.
Give it a try and compare, sometimes the air-flows fight each other and you get less coming out by combining.
Well, I began using a nebulizer pump a few years back by accident. (Dad died, pump died…so I tried his). Won’t go back…lmao. Super strong, more air than I ever seen an air pump have, and just won’t die👍
Really, shit I got 2 of those on the shelf, unused.
Even bought one just to get the nebulizer mist head 
Yes sir. Best air pump ever, imo …haha
I use all 4 in my bubblecloner! Total overkill but why not? 
Oh also, it’s because my air stones are a bit clogged and shitty so it works better with 4.
All the best
Try one real quick, and let me know what you think. 
@Hydrlizr
Pretty damn good, not very quiet, if I had a separate grow room this would be amazing.
Next to my bed its a no go, but for sure a great backup and maybe tomato buckets next summer, would probably drive a whole lineup.
Didn’t think they’d stand up to long term use so never thought to try.
For sure need a larger/longer airstone, this puppy can push some air, not just bubbles, actual waves in the bucket.
These should be recommended more widely if they can keep trucking for a while, great price for the performance. Bought mine for ~25€/$.
Oh gods, just checked, 192VA ~170W 
.
Fluval Q1 or Q2 are my go-to if I’ve got the $ not cheap but there’s method to the madness on that at least.
Linear is a whole different matter.
Agreed, Haileas every time for my money. They extremely reliable, long lasting, quiet and pump out shit loads of air. This one is 30l/m and is about 35 db.
Next setup I am going to use a needle wheel pump as well, like this
Wow, never knew, Ive always been a fresh water aquarium guy, protein skimmer pumps.
Hy-5000 is 40W, heat wont be a problem?
My setup has is a reticulation dwc setup with a rez so I will put it inline on the return instead of submerged partly for that reason… going to be used along with an Iwaki md20 that will do most of the water shifting…like this…
Though honestly I have run submerged pumps of around that wattage before and have not had a problem. It’s basically a standard submersible pump with a venturil on the intake side and impeller like this to shear the air bubbles…
I might even feed the air line from my Hailea into the return line pre needlewheel pump.
Its going to be nice n foamy, I am guessing your res volume is a little larger than 5gal, that would fix the heat accumulation.
Yeah about 10 gallon, but then there are 12 tubs in the chain of about the same volume as well hence the overkill 
Idea is to fully aerate the rez and then rely on 3 inch equalising connectors between the tubs so the water will flow unrestricted, then I won’t bother with airstones in each tub. I fkn hate airstones lol…
Yea those suckers gunk up and break apart all the time, very annoying.
You have a long travel for the water, much more surface area and volume for heat to bleed off.
My insulated 5gal, 10w of constant pump power will kick up the temps 5-6C, disastrous.
Would have to run my chiller near constant, massive power draw.
