Vacuum with air pump

Hey guys,

A part of my aquarium is a column with a closed top. Water stays in it thanks to the vacuum created by sucking air out off the top of the column. So far, I've been doing this with my mouth

Because bubbles will eventually get into this column (especially if I add and airstone to make the air and water breathable!), over time, the vacuum is going to release water, and that isn't good. If you want a better idea of what my tank looks like:

So here's where I need your help: is there an airpump whose input can be directed with a hose? All airpumps have a hose for the output, obviously, so that you can make bubbles. But what I want here is to be able to place a hose where I want the air to come from. To put it another way: is there such a thing as a vacuum pump in the aquariophile world?

 

Research "Tom's AQUALIFTER" pump, not sure if it can do air and water though.

 

Cool, thanks leftswerve. It does look like it can do air since there seems to be no need to prime the pump. Do you know whether this thing is noisy ?

 

Quick 11 sec vid. Soundlike a noisy air pump with air and quiets down with water. I don't read the language for the vid, so not sure if the pump is good or bad, lol

 

, that's super noisy!

Since I asked that question, I went out and bought a Tetra APS 50 (also called Tetra Whisper 10, I think). It's pretty easy to open up and reverse the pump's direction. So that works.

But it's hacky. Probably not everyone would like to do this. What I mean is: keep posting solutions