Desiding on Pump Driving is Driving me Crazy!

flyingzach

New Member
I need help, Im still trying to decide what pump I need for my sump. Ive got a 75gal with a 700gph overflow and I would really like to get 700gph back to the tank since that would give me about 10x per hour.
My issues are
-noise, its in a bedroom (I will put it inside the stand)
-heat, room temp is about 76-80 (summers are hot!) and then of course lights. Right now lighrts arent a problem but I plan on upgrading to MH shortly.
Ive been told to get every pump out there from Little Giant to QuiteOne.
Personal experiences please!
Also what GHP do I need to get 700GHP in the tank. The pipe will run about 5 ft up, then be split with a T and goto each side of the aquarium, then have 3 90 bends on each end so that it acts as a powerhead. I guess that means 5ft vertical, another 4ft horizontal, one T, and 6 90 bends.
Zach
 

dburr

Active Member
Sorry I didn't vote.
If it's in the bedroom I vote not to get a magdrive. It's not quiet.
I would say go external. Not as much heat will go in the water. They cool by the fins on the pumps. Submersible are cooled by the water, and heat it up.
Normaly the GPH is listed by the manufacturer. 0 head, 1 ft head, ect... Look for the listings in magazines or on-line.
Vertical is head=preasure. horizontal doesn't matter at all.
The bends do matter to some degree. But you are using a tee so the pipe is really getting larger (follow me?), so I don't think it would matter at all. Maybe someone else will chime in who knows for sure.
HTH
 

almarktool

Member
i would say go for the mag 9 it is 950 per hour not sure what it steps down to at your head reguirments and bends but i would think at least u would be able to run it full open oppsed to the mag 12 which if it was too much u would need a valve to throttle it back not to mention the 12 puts of a bit more heat than the 9
 

smalltimer

Member
If your going in sump I have 3 Catalina Aquarium pump/powerheads running 2 tanks and 1 chiller from central sump, all run quiet and are more reliable than rio, they even look like rios. My lfs has a pile of rios that are dead, he even picked one up out of a tank by the cord, the pump was not held down by anything and the cord came out of the pump, anyway, the ca's are cheaper. If you go bigger than what you want put a tee, in the supply line in your sump with a cut off on the tee part, and pipe back into the intake side of sump, then put cutoff (ball valve) in the supply at the back of the aquarium or at the sump leading up to the aquarium, then you can throttle the water going into aquarium if you are pushing too much you can open cutoff on the tee and divert some of the water back into the sump, just pipe it back to the intake side of sump so you don't get any air bubbles in your tank............
If you are looking at inline pumps external, I recommend the Iwaki pump line, I had one on a 150 feeding 4 3/4 supply outlets at the corners of the tank and was in living room, NO pump noise, very quiet and ran for 3 yrs straight before I sold tank.
 

smalltimer

Member
Sorry but I didn't read all of your post, i do that sometimes, If you want quiet go in sump pump, water blocks noise, external WILL be louder, but you do have the heat issue of the in tank pump, even with external pump, with mh's and an 80 degree room, you will either neeed LOTS of fans on top of of water and on top of sump (big 12 inch fan blowing on top of sump takes out LOTS of heat, I had that on the 150 plugged into the lamp timer so when the 2 250 mh's came on so did the fan, I still ran 79 deg with external pump mh, and my house stayed at 72 degrees or I would break 80 in the tank, this time, I went smaller on tank 50 gallon reef with 1 250 pfo pendant mounted in top of canopy so light goes in heat goes up and out of canopy, w/ 2 55 actinic pc's also on system is 30 gallon seahorse and reef tank with 2 96 watt pc,s white and actinic with 2 40 watt no actinics, 3 insump pumps, a Turboflotor 1000 with it's bulit in rio 2100, and a maxi jet 2100 for water, 3 maxi jet powerheads in reef, on wave maker, (when you cycle the powerheads they create more heat by starting and stoping) and calcium reactor(doesn't add much heat) NO FANS, but 1/4 h.p. chiller under house, that is the trick to no noise, all you can hear in my living room is the overflows trickling, the sump is in an ajoing room all plumbing is throgh the wall of behind the cabnet of the reef. If you want a successful reef tank, no ich, well not no ich but much less than with a tank with temp swings of 3 or 4 degrees, invest in a chiller, you will make your money back in livestock and bandages for your head from banging it against the wall because you got algea, ich and dieing corals...my tanks run 77.2 to 77.7 ....24 hrs a day I set our house to 80 when we go to work and it doesn't matter, but noise will be factor with external pump in a bedroom....and nothing helps you get those new corals if the wife is mad about noise..well atleast hear it doesn't help..
GOOD LUCK
 

rjpsj1

New Member
Hey Zack- I use rio 2100 in my sump. I have 90 gal reef tank. This is to only one return but it does a great job. In the tank i have 2 ocillating 125 gal/hr power heads. I get plenty of water movement, without increased heat. The thought of using two returns off aT, you may wish to go to the next size, the rio 2500.
The lights are the real concern with the heat. A small chiller should be all you need if the lights are a problem. I have not had any heat problems with the submersible pumps. Good luck.
 
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