Beer Forum

Following John Palmer, I have decided to use an aquarium pump rather instead of going all the way to an O2 system. But I am not sure what size of pump I need (I haven't been able to find an answer). I don't want to use more than necessary.

I bought a cheap pump for a 10 gallon aquarium. Is this sufficient to achieve 8 ppm (running for 30-45 minutes) or do I need a bigger pump?

I would highly suggest you reconsider and spend the extra 20 bucks or so and go straight to O2. You can buy a $9 can of O2 at Home Depot or Ace. 90 seconds into your wort and you are done. With an aquarium pump, you are looking at 1/2 hour or more, and you still won't get as much O2 in there as you would have with pure oxygen.

Thanks, but I don't want to go O2 (for one thing I'm in Canada and it's all much more expensive here). I would just like some advice on the size of the pump from someone who uses one.

From my understanding you really cannot over oxygenate when using an aquarium pump and they are fairly inexpensive. I would just get the largest one that they have a Walmart. Do not forget to get a filter to put inline to avoid contamination of your wort.

The aeration system I got (from Northern Brewer I think ) had a Whisper 10 aquarium pump. Looking back now, it was a waste of money for me since I got an aeration wand from Williams Brewing and use the red O2 tanks that BDawg mentioned. But if O2 is really expensive, I guess it wouldn't be worth it.

Just a note: the red O2 can I got at Home Depot is still going strong after 15 batches. I generally only run it about 1.5-2 minutes at the most.

Sorry man, I split the thread so this wouldn't get clogged with O2 talk, but they all chased after that thread like dogs with a bone. I'm sure someone uses a pump though, and hopefully will chime in.

My general understanding is that you need a longer time to bubble through, as conc of O2 is lower. You'll want an inline filter to keep from pushing wild yeast/bacteria into the beer. Pump power wise, you just need it to be able to push air enough to bubble it out the end of the wand you run down into your fermentor, you don't need to be pushing it so hard it's splashing out the top. You're looking for it to move the wort around, keeping it rolling so more surface area turns over in the headspace, allowing O2 to dissolve in.

I *believe* you are fine to pitch yeast and hook the pump up and let it go for however long you'll be running it, the yeast can start taking up the O2 from solution, making it easier for more to dissolve. The O2 levels aren't high enough to be harmful, so I don't see why this wouldn't be ok, but others may have more input.

Aeration times are likely going to be dependent on yeast pitch size, yeast health, pitch temp, wort gravity, yeast strain, etc. so it may take some playing around with it (and taking good notes!) to get it where you want for a given recipe.

I use an air pump. 30 minutes of aeration seems overkill. I usually pump for 5 minutes while swirling the carboy, creating a good vortex. The air is dissolved at the surface of the wort, so creating more surface area with the bubbles and exchanging the bottom of the wort with the top by swirling produces a faster result. Healthy starters or rehydrating dry yeasts are, of course, key.

I have a aquarium air-pump as well but I do not have a filter. I have looked around online and can not seem to find anything that fits the bill. Where can these be located? I was going to make one out of a coke bottle half-filled with sanitizing solution and another air-stone, but would be nice if I could just order a piece for a few bucks.