Page 1 of Fish tank air pumps, anyone know about `em?

Friend just changed their fish tank due to the old one leaking and their pump is a bit on the noisy side, they also think it may be too small as the new tank is a bit bigger than the old.

New tank is a 2 foot by 1 foot rectangular jobbie and they want to get a new pump but advice seems conflicting from those they speak to in stores.

Can anyone point or describe what they need? Fleabay prices seem to vary from about £8 for a single output, 240v pump delivering 120L of air to silly prices with multi outputs etc.

All advice gratefully received :)

Jimbo : oÞ

"There`s that word again... is there a problem with the Earth`s gravitational pull in the future?"

buy a Rena Air pump they are the quietest on the market, and ultra reliable, i have had tanks for since i was a nipper!

In my opinion air pumps actually do very little in the way of aerating the water and are more for asthectics i.e attached to air stones for bubble curtains and divers in helmets... and air pump just adds noise and no real benefit to the fish. (are these goldfish per chance?)

Aeration is achieved by overall surface area of the tank and movement of the water just above the surface, breaking this surface allows oxygen to leach into the water - if their is a power filter system in place that suck water in and blows it out the other so to speak, sticking the outlet nozzle just above the surface will introduce more air into the water thasn an airstone will

Credentials:

avid tropical fish keeper for 20 years, 2 x 190litre all glass community tanks and 1 x shrimp tank and not an airstone in sight. 

Got the one Mark referred to (the 100l version) for £17 delivered on Fleabay.
As Grumpy says, the wee air sphere creates a nice bubble curtain but she has a few goldfish, 2 wee shrimps and a dwarf frog.
No idea if the pump is or isn`t needed and they do have a filter thing on the tank but the fish definitely seemed more lively and happy (if it`s possible to sense fish being happy...?) when the new pump was switched on.
They also appear to like the bubbles too so even in that respect it`s made my friend happy.

Any other little tips for them I`ll happily pass along though ;)

Jimbo : oÞ

"There`s that word again... is there a problem with the Earth`s gravitational pull in the future?"

quarter water change once a month, and feed sparingly... over feeding is more liekly to kill the fish than underfeeding... never use those horrible `holiday feeding blocks` the fish dont need them... and they will just gorge on the food as soon as the block dissolves... also if cold water, a couple of goldne loach will help keep the algae down, and few cloud mountain minnows will add a bit of extra life to the tank.  I would always advocate a few live plants from time to time, and some live or frozen food.

Funny that about the frozen thing, the Frog eats bloodworms, and they come in wee frozen cubes that dissolve.
She put one in the tank to make sure it had some and the fish nabbed most of it LOL, she`s considering dissolving before putting in the tank next time ;)

To the Rena air pump... it`s working fine but personally I think it`s noisier than the one they took away (it was going faulty and working intermittently) but they say it seems ok... not sure just how quiet these are supposed to be but it`s listed as being able to use in a bedroom and it would def. keep me awake until I got used to it.

Jimbo : oÞ

"There`s that word again... is there a problem with the Earth`s gravitational pull in the future?"