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Old 12-29-2009, 05:18 PM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Lake Havasu AZ.
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Now you can add a oil catch can to a air compressor and no oil or water will be returned to your water supply system. Think about it, they paint cars and such with air compressors and if oil got into paint it would look like crap.
Ya I worked in the automotive field doing breaks and front end work for almost 5 years myself. Never in paint and body work. I know that there are filters that will get oil and water out. We used the water filters because they will rust the air tools, but we want the oil to lubricate them. I am not sure what they call the oil filters they use for paint and body but I am doubt there cheep. The one I used at home for filtering water was around $100 if I remember correctly.
Quote:
However if you needed to get a air comp. then get a large one, like 25 gallons and set the regulator to 2 psi - just like a fish pump. It wont turn on very much.
I want to get a 25 to 60 gallon compressor so I can get back into doing auto repair work for myself again. Compressors will vary in price especially locally, though I would expect to spend $300-$400 for a decent 25 gallon compressor. Ya the larger the tank, the less it will need to go on to build the presser up again. I haven't really looked at the regulators but I think a regulator that can be set that low will be a special order. I always had mine set at 90 psi for my air tools but not sure how low it would go. Because air tools are designed to run efficiently at 90-100 psi I don't think the regulators that come with the compressor would be designed to go much lower than 50 or 60 psi, that's why I think it would be a special order.

Also if you were using it for many systems you will probably run into a problem with the amount of volume it would put out. Just like with an air pump every time you add an air stone the line the pressure/volume drops. So if the output is 2 psi at the compressor, by the time you run it to all the multiple hydroponic systems you wanted to you will probably not have enough output to do much good. Unless you run multiple lines out of the compressor at say 50 psi then have a regulator at the end of those lines set at 2 psi. From there you could probably run 3 or 4 lines of 2 psi at that point that will have enough volume of air to do the job.

Then again with some trial and error as well as a regulator that has a wide range of low pressure output you could probably use a higher output at the compressor like maybe 5 or 6 psi, and by the time you run the lines to 15 or 20 air stones the pressure could be right at the stones. Though you would probably need to build a splitter so you can run all your lines from one place. Though I cant see it as being cost effective unless you were building a hydroponics farm for selling produce.
Quote:
I have used the above fish pump to make an air lift system to filter a 6000 gallon fish tank. So I think a compressor is over kill.
When I was looking for the large air pumps I read many times a reference to air lift systems for fish tanks, But I have no idea what that is and how exactly it's different from using air stones and/or which is better
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Last edited by GpsFrontier; 12-29-2009 at 05:45 PM.
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