I’ve been using two Hailea piston based, ACO-308 and ACO-208 air-pumps to provide air in the fish house, using a 22mm ring main “air-reservoir”. I purchased the first ACO-208 in September 2005, and when my generic 40lpm “Hi-Blow” failed when I moved just under tweleve months ago, purchased another larger ACO-308 to add to the “air-reservoir”. I’ve never really been happy with the amount of air, especially in the deeper tanks (> 2 foot). I switched to Hailea because they were cheaper to run, but I’ve since found, they cannot deliver the pressure and are noisy, my master bedroom is above the fish house, and I can hear the pumps through the floor!
So I’ve recently purchased a Japanese Secoh SLL-50, but I still wasn’t getting the required pressure required. After consultation with a DIY expert, we will call him SimonL at work, he mentioned that I needed to use 15mm and 22mm inserts in the Speedfit piping, and also cut the pipe using a poly pipe cutter, not a hacksaw (I knew this bit, but I didn’t think it would really matter!). I borrowed SimonL’s poly pipe cutter to re-cut all lengths of pipe, and disappeared to ScrewFix to purchase some pipe inserts (well I didn’t know, it didn’t say it on the pack!), re-assembled the ring main “air-reservoir” and like magic plenty of pressure!
Re-visited the fish house, 30 minutes later to find no air! I thought the ring main had failed, it wasn’t the ring main but the back-pressure on the diaphragms in the Secoh SLL-50, that had failed! I’d forgotten to open the bleed valve on the ring main, which usually feeds into a large volume of water, that I use to change in the tanks. So I purchased a Service Kit from KoiKit by JustKoi. Fantastic service, the service kit arrived promptly, Secoh pump serviced, diaphragms replaced, and to prevent this happening again I purchased Pressure Relief Valve and Pressure Guage Assembley from partsandpumps.co.uk, again Fantastic Customer Service, tell David I sent you!
This pressure relief valve is a pump protection device against over pressurisation. The valve will safely vent off any pressure over 0.2 Bar, and it’s been doing that!
I think I’ve got too much air now! But the leaks in the “air-reservoir” are fixed – Thanks SimonL
Secoh SLL-50 “Hi-Blow” Pump, with pressure relief valve and pressure guage assembley inline and connected to “air-reservoir”
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