Pros and Cons of an Aquarium Air Pump

The best aquarium air pumps are rarely heard and not seen. In fact, there is absolutely nothing worse than attempting to enjoy your saltwater aquarium fully, and then all you can hear is ERRRRGG. If you have ever owned an old ugly air pump, then you will know exactly what I mean.

Air pumps do make a lot of sense when you think about them, because they do in fact help keep the aquarium water at a constant level of oxygen. That is right, in order to have any kind of success at all with your aquarium, you must keep the water at the correct pH level and the correct amount of salt and other elements at just the right levels. Well, if you use a poor quality air pump, that just isn’t going to happen. The best aquarium air pump you can buy will actually produce a back pressure that is equal to the aquarium tank itself, so it will keep everything regulated and working correctly.

So how does that get you all excited, knowing that an air pump is a necessity for the successful maintenance of a saltwater aquarium? Well, for starters, an air pump will help to regulate the temperature of the water, allowing the fish and plants to remain healthy and happy. An additional benefit to the best aquarium air pumps is that they will also increase the dissolved oxygen levels in your tank. That is because as water is moved around, it carries tiny pieces of dissolved oxygen along with it, which are actually important to the various marine creatures living in your tank.

Now let s talk about some of the cons of these useful pieces of equipment. The first thing you should know is that the pros do have one disadvantage, which is that it can cause some problems in some situations. While air pumps will typically operate at a lower rate than their counterparts, sometimes pumping too much water or too little air in the tank will actually cause the back pressure to increase, which can cause the pump to become ineffective. Sometimes it is just more efficient to use a water movement device that allows you to pump water in a more precise fashion.

The cons however have nothing to do with efficiency. In fact, there is actually one major advantage to using air pumps in a saltwater aquarium over their freshwater counterparts. Basically, the larger the aquarium, the more air pumps you will need to provide increased oxygen levels in the water. But that is not to say that smaller aquariums cannot use air pumps. They can use air pumps just as well, only perhaps not as effectively. The biggest disadvantage of these machines is that they do need to be maintained regularly, in order to prevent them from breaking down and clogging up.

The pros definitely outweigh the cons when you are thinking about the overall cost of owning an air pump. In addition, if you are going to use it, then you really don’t have any downside at all, since you will always have an extra supply of dissolved oxygen under your nose at all times. When deciding on which pump to get however, the most important thing to do is to figure out how much dissolved oxygen your tank has naturally, as well as how much you think you may need based on the level of maintenance you want to perform. If you think the amount of dissolved oxygen in your tank is too low, then you will want to get a stronger pump, whereas if you think the level is too high, then you might want to get a smaller pump.