Need Help Asap!!

Hello all. I set my daughter up a 3 gallon fish tank in November. It is one of those cheapy Hawkeye 360 ones. Well the pump stopped working. So I went and bought her another one thinking that it was a 3 gallon air pump. I get it home and hook it up and was like wow, that's a lot of bubbles. Come to find out it is a 5-15 gallon air pump. Will it be okay to use or should I take it back and try to find a 3 gallon air pump. The fish are acting a little excited (like they don't know what to do with all the bubbles.) Any help would be greatly appreciated. I don't want anything to happen to her fish. They are two glow fish and a tetra by the way. I am clueless...please help!

 

HI and Welcome to Fishlore!

I wouldn't worry about it too much. You could place some filter sponge around the outlet to diffuse the bubbles a bit or get one of those plastic things (the name is escaping me at the moment) that will control the flow of air. You can start to worry if the fish are being blown all over the place by the force of the bubbles.

Your Aquarium Info isn't completely filled out. You can fill it out by going to the top blue bar on this page and clicking on My Settings. Then go down to Edit Aquarium Info. Once you've filled everything out just hit Save Changes. By looking at your aquarium info members can give you the best advice based on your tank and what's in your tank.

 

I believe the product RA is thinking of is called a bubble wand; it's like an airstone, only larger.

 

Nope that's not it. It's like a little plastic thing that you put on the air tubing before it gets to the airstone. It has a little nob that you turn to control the amount of air getting through. I'm thinking guage but I don't believe that's right.


EDIT: Valves! That's the right word ;D!! This is what I was thinking of -

 

oooooh, aha, yes, that too! Although I'd still suggest a bubble wand just to provide more O2 to the tank, since as a 3G tank I'm assuming it's over stocked with no live plants (not a really fair assumption, but still)...
although now that I think about it, it's pretty probable that there's not room for a wand anyway in such a small tank. oh well, valve it is, although some air pumps have dials on them where you can turn the airflow up or down (I just bought one, can't remember the name brand now but I'll look it up, because it's amazing and I'm sticking with this kind for ever!)

 

Not to get techinal but when using plastic valves be careful if you reduce the airflow too much you could possibly put backdraft on your pump. Which could burn up the engine not likely to happen but ont close the valve too much

 

This is if you don't use a one-way valve in your airline tubing to eliminate that chance, which I would ALWAYS, always do. They're only $0.99, and it's really just safer to use them. It never occurred to me that one would use an air pump and not use a one-way back flow control; imo it's just not worth the risk. Any aquarium store will have them. This is a nicer, fancier one, but the cheap ones work pretty well ime:

 

To slow the air coming out of pumps, I just fold the tubing a bit, and wrap a rubber band around it. Nice and easy, and you don't have to go to the store.

I would also recommend a check valve (the thingy in the post above), unless you have the pump higher than the water lever. I used to hang my pumps on the wall behind the tank, if I could. Some pumps have little loops on one end, so I'd get some string and a thumbtack. Also a cheap alternative.

 

A simple half knot works great too and you can loosen or tighten it to adjust the flow.

 

I read somewhere those valves work great for drip acclimating also. Tried it and it works great!!