Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Has anybody used/or know if it works using a 12V car air compressor such as this one:

http://www.bon-aireindustries.com/produ ... ?prodID=57

to lift water from the sump tank and also provide aeration to the system? The compressor is a direct drive compressor. Does anybody know if the compressor will work 24/7? We do not have access to air blown pumps (pond pumps) and we will be using solar panels to provide the electricity, therefore need a low energy system. Our need is around 4psi or 1.25cfm for the system with a flow rate of 17litres/min.

Thanks very much.

No, they are designed for high pressure low volume and as such inefficient for what you want, look for an air pump suited to purpose, there are a lot of air pumps for aquaculture/aquaria purposes. I think that if you are going to use this for water flow you'll need a lot bigger than 17L/min.

In addition to Joel's comments, those air compressors are only meant for intermittent use, they wouldn't last a day if run continuously. Also, the air delivered tends to be very dirty due to aluminium (or whatever metal they use for the cylinder in that unit) dust, which would poison the fish. If they have oil lubrication, then that may end up in the water too, along with a bit of Carbon Monoxide if the compressor runs hot, which they generally do.

Thanks for your info/advice. Yes we want to get a air pump as is usually used but they are just very difficult to obtain here in Nicaragua so we were looking for other options or at least to see if we can find a similar pump that is used in an industry or machine that is more commonly used over here.

If you have some engineering skills, you can get a pressure vessel and use multiple fridge/freezer compressors.
have them run in sequence as to not overload each motor, pressurize the tank and run from there.
Should make for a very quiet compressor.

You would need to work out size/ number of motors needed.

If you got a regular oilless air compressor with an air tank it would probably work, it would fill up then run again when the pressure got too low. You might need an air filter on the low pressure side to keep any dust or contaminants out of your AP system though.