What does everyone prefer for air pumps and why?

FYI, I posted a similar question about filters but this is not a mistake or spamming, I truly do want everyones opinions because I am currently trying to rehab a tank and could use all the help I could get. I've heard so many conflicting recommendations along the lines of "Use this, not that" but never seem to be able to really get a straight answer as to why X brand or style is recommended, what the pros are and most of all, what the cons are. I've been burned before on trusting those little bits of advice, as I'm sure we all have before when still new to fish-keeping or back after multiple years and so brands/styles/specific models had changed forcing us to start all over again.

I currently am using a Tetra Whisper Air Pump for intended for use on 40-60 gallon sized tanks. My tank is 55 gallons and is also unfortunately down to only half the population of goldfish we had just days ago thanks to said bad product recommendation and resulting bullying from stress that was caused when the supposedly "great new product" (a water treatment) backfired. I am basically having to question everything I currently have now, along the lines of "Is this good enough or is there something better/quieter/more efficient that I could be using instead?"

At the moment in the entire 55 gallon I have only two fantail goldfish (3.5" and 3") and a fancy telescope-eyed fantail (2 or 2.5") a juvenile sail fin pleco (6") and as of yesterday a tiny little baby gold dojo loach. Eventually when all this reevaluating/rehabing/upgrading/transitioning/adjustment period is over I will be adding at least a couple more dojos after our baby one has grown enough to keep up with bigger ones usually available at pet stores, and am considering other fish as well.

While I feel this pump does its job, I would love for it to be quieter so if you know of any that are nearly silent (I know there is zero chance of one that is entirely silent but as close as possible would be nice) or if you know of a way to make this one quieter, the assistance would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

I have yet to find an air pump quieter than the tetra whisper line. That's all I use in my tanks after some trial and error with similarly priced models, and they're virtually silent. They're also easy to take apart if you find one needs to be worked on (I've done this on a couple that had slight malfunctions due to my dogs relocating them across the living room because my dogs are jerks).

As a side note, that is a very heavily stocked tank. I wouldn't suggest adding anything else.

 

My son has some learning/processing challenges and the tank has been very therapeutic to him. This is why I am considering adding to it at all once things settle down some more but if I do, it will be small, peaceful, vibrant enough to be seen across a room and especially not the messy, clumsy and when stressed/breeding surprisingly violent goldfish. I still have no idea whether it was stress or breeding behavior but based on another post I found after writing this one I have begun to wonder if it actually had been breeding behavior. I had been unaware until this point how violent goldfish can get. Because it was so traumatic for my son to witness and almost as upsetting to him now that the tank is suddenly empty of the biggest three goldfish that we are considering rehoming the three remaining goldfish and converting it to a tropical or similar tank. If we added at all without rehoming, it would be something small that could tolerate a room temp tank likejust a few guppies or danios - enough to distract him from how empty it seems in his eyes.

 

I like the Rena Air brand pumps. Although, I run no air pumps in earshot if my seat on the settee/side of the bed

Ps. I too have just discovered the horrors of Goldfish aggression. I don't think severe aggression is normal for Goldies, I think we just have a couple with anger issues! Any fish can be aggressive, I've seen my guppies attack.

What I'm trying to say is that, sometimes, these things happen and any fish can turn aggressive under the right (or rather, wrong) circumstances. We just have to manage the aggression as best as we can.xx

 

True if could happen with anything but the idea here is also that my son won't wake to find one guppy being "tortured" by the rest with giant raw, ulcer-like wounds on their sides and half the tail gone as he discovered one morning or another with vitreous fluid leaking out of the formerly telescope eyed fish while the eyes steadily appeared to deflate and flatten back down into the head or to watch them slowly dying of the wounds that cannot be treated or healed as I had happen with another one yesterday. You have no idea how thankful I am that he was not here to witness the latter of those two.

Rather than him seeing the huge wounds on the one goldfish's sides, for example, it would only be a little red spot on one little colorful fish that is small enough and fast enough that my son wouldn't have a chance to see them much closer unless he resorted to netting each and every one against the glass to examine (which I do not allow because the stress it causes the fish) I would much rather the fish not fight to begin with but not realizing exactly how brutal the goldfish would be to each other when the mood struck them right, and how obvious any injuries would be on their big, round, slow bodies when they swam right up to the glass to greet him, I had thought prior to setting up the tank that goldfish would be a petter choice for a number of reasons. One of the bigger reasons specifically was them being so peaceful as the goldfish I'd always had in the past had been so I'm sure you can imagine how surprised I was when they started acting even more hostile to each other than the sharks my brother keeps in his tank are to their tank mates in comparison.

 

I see what you mean. It does sound like a good plan. I hadn't really considered the wound size and speed of swimming as a factor in your decision. It makes perfect sense.

I was mortified when I saw my Goldfish ganged up and eating the small ones alive one at a time. I chose Goldfish for their peaceful nature too, as their tank is above my son's toy boxes.

I am quite lucky in that Bob is still a toddler so doesn't understand why his beloved goldfish are now in two tanks and half of them have no fins.

We wish you and your son all the best with whatever decision you make. Lots of luck &love.x

 

Thanks hollie 1505! Good luck to you with yours as well.

Had I known in advance I might have considered different fish altogether or chosen differently when I was picking the goldfish out. I thought I had done all the research, picked good fish that were healthy, happy, colorful and friendly because my son would sit in his chair next to the old tank at my parents house with their very old goldfish until it passed finally about 6 months ago and I noticed on the days he was left alone to just stare into it he went from nearly hysterical and non-verbal/non-functioning to being able to speak and interact again. Most importantly, he went from that point of near non-functioning on even the worst of his bad days back when he was still being bullied, to happy and cheerful again! And this would be only in the course of 20-30 minutes sometimes! This specifically was near miraculous because no other recommended "therapy" or "support" has worked for him so far and of course, not every one works for every person but this did so I dove right in. The tank was originally going to be for my parents big old fish that they had kept in way too small a tank for years no matter how much I tried to talk them into a bigger abode for "Spot" but unfortunately that one passed literally just 24 hours before the final test to ensure cycling of the new tank was completed and as long as there were no anomalies he was going to be transitioned over at that time.

When I looked at the difference in him without his "big fishy buddy" I did as much research as I could as quickly as I could into several varieties of goldfish and goldfish relatives like koi or shubunkin thinking the longer lifespan meant less of that heartbreak than we would get with something like the neon tetras we had at my house growing up which only have a life span of a couple of years and so the deaths are much more frequent if the school is staggered in ages. The goldfish had the perk of also being able to learn the faces of their owners and would swim over to great him like little scaled puppy dogs whenever he sat in the chair by the tank which some tropical ones will do but not all. Not needing a heater also translated to less risk of massive fish loss in case of the frequent (but thankfully usually brief) power outages we have here because the goldies probably wouldn't even know beyond the aerator and filter being off temporarily (our outages in the winter but usually last less than an hour and in the 4 years we've been in our current home, only twice has there been longer ones and those were still a matter of hours, not days or weeks as others in other parts of the country sometimes get so we aren't talking about anything drastic here) Now I'm kicking myself for maybe not doing the right research or asking the right questions and am trying as best I can to make it better as we do a "rehab" of sorts.

I am eternally grateful for all the advice and understanding everyone has been giving as I have been asking an extensive series of "Is this or that better for the tank?" type questions to make sure that even if I screwed something up the first time, at least it can be fixed before causing any more problems.

 

I truly believe in the healing qualities of fish. It's incredible what it's done for your son, I hope he continues his love of fish for years to come.

I have OCD and my tanks is the one place I have found peace. They're so serene and colourful!

I'm sorry to hear about the oldie Goldies. Such a shame they couldn't hang on til their new home was ready.

If you do decide to go tropical, I have just discovered Rainbow fish. My son loves them. It may be worth looking into the dwarf neons (praecox) if you do decide to go down that route. Bold, colourful and fast. He also loves Cories and giggles at them when they dig. Just a couple of ideas to consider.

Have you tried silk plants? They're soft but can't be eaten, a great alternative to live plants. I'll try and find a link to a thread where there's a goldfish tank with beautiful silk plants.

 

I tried silk plants but the current Goldies I have were stupid enough to repeatedly keep trying to eat them too and I kept finding strings on their mouths, caught on a scale, or snagged on the filter intake so I removed it. I am leery of plastic plants since so many I've seen in the past are so cheaply made with sharp edges that just shred delicate fins like a fantail has. If it was a bigger, tougher fish like a pleco or catfish then it wouldn't be an issue.

My son and I both have a form of autism spectrum disorder that is on the higher functioning end and similar to Aspergers Syndrome. I just tell him we are like Sheldon from Big Bang Theory since he is so young it would be hard to explain in a way he could understand it will mean he is different but not that he is stupid or crazy or in any other way make him feel like his self-worth was lessened by his "quirks" because the character is still a genius level of intelligence, has a successful career that is in the field he loves, has friends that accept him as he is, has quite a few of the same hobbies that my son also likes too and is able to enjoy his life even if his quirks mean some things he does differently because he processes the information differently than others might.

The fish have also helped more than just to teach my son the self-soothing behaviors most kids learn as toddlers or preschool age but my son could not because of his learning disabilities. They have also helped to give him a common ground to connect with other kids, a skill that is also extremely hard for people with his disorder to learn. Because most of his peers love animals as well, they will come in to class telling stories about the funny thing their cat did last night or how crazy their dog looks when he tries frantically to catch his tail. Our dogs and our fish both allow my son to have something he can share and connect with other fellow animal lovers he meets. The tank is soothing to me as well, but it was intended to be his tank with his fish in his room because of how much of a difference it has made for him.