Adding Additional Air Valves to Air Loop

[Andrew Puhr]

Hi there. 

I have a linear piston pump running an air loop in my fish room. I am planning to add additional air valves to my loop to feed a few more tanks. My question was should I take my system offline to drill the new valves or keep it running? If I take it offline I figure the fish would be fine for an hour or so while I make my updates but want it to go smoothly. 

[jwcarlson]

I can't imagine any normal aquarium or fish room is simply an hour loss of aeration short of any sort of real issue.  If it's easier to do it one way vs. the other, I'd do it that way.

[CMcDermott]

I would leave the air pump running to help blow the chips out from drilling into the pipes.

[Revaria]

If your concern is with the air being off for an hour you should be fine unless you are actively pumping a lot of CO2 for a planted tank, but even then your fish should be gasping rather than dead if it even gets to that point. There have been times where I've entered my fishroom after work and the diaphragm for the pump broke overnight, so they were without air for most of the day and they were just fine as they had to wait several days for the replacement kit to come in.