Air Pumps

Most air pumps in this hobby run a sponge filter or a quarantine tank, and any of them will do that. One of them does something else.

A battery backup air pump is the cheapest thing that keeps livestock alive through a power outage. It is not a generator and it will not hold temperature, but oxygen is what runs out first in a closed reef tank with no flow, and a sponge airstone running on batteries buys hours. In the Keys that is not a hypothetical purchase.

The rest of this page is ordinary and useful. Tom Stellar and Tetra Whisper for quarantine tanks, fry tanks and sponge filters. Hygger piezoelectric pumps for people who keep the tank in a bedroom and have discovered how loud a diaphragm pump is at two in the morning.

Put a check valve on any pump sitting below the water line. Without one, a pump that loses power can siphon the tank onto the floor.