End of reef

murph

Active Member
Well I have had my third return pump fail. Various brands and none lasting more than a year.
Due to this and various other equipment issues; this week or weekend the corals and LR will be coming out of the tank and to an LFS that has been vary reasonable with me. The tank will become FO or broken down all together.
I simply can not afford to keep replacing shoddy equipment. Hopefully the various manufacturers monitor forums like this and take note. I seriously doubt it though.
 

poniegirl

Active Member
I'm so sorry to hear! I would be in the same spot if things failed here, though smaller scale.
I'm afraid manufacturers don't have very good hearing..
Very sad.
 

ninjamini

Active Member
Why not just get 2 pumps. One to use and one for back up. That way you always have one ready to go. I have herd that you need to run a pump at full flow. Operating at partial flow will greatly shorten its life. Have you tried one of the more expensive pumps? There are some that cost $100-150 and sit outside the sump. Like the Coralife Turbo Sea Circulation Pump $130. pic below
If you have decided to throw in the towel please don't take your stuff back to the LFS. Give it away or sell it here. You can make your fellow reefers very happy. Me for one.
Where in florida are you? Drop me an email ninjagator2000@yahoo.com.
 

acrylic51

Active Member
Misinformation.....It does not put undue stress or shorten pump life, by restricting or "throttling" back the output side of a pump.......
Hey Murph, what size is your tank, and what is your sump setup like????
 

ninjamini

Active Member
Originally Posted by ninjamini
...I have herd that you need to run a pump at full flow. Operating at partial flow will greatly shorten its life..

Originally Posted by acrylic51

Misinformation.....
Sorry. I read that here on SWF.com. Which is is why i wrote "I have herd..." No Misinformation intended.
 

acrylic51

Active Member
Didn't mean to offend you ninjamini........I was just saying people that people have put that information out and haven't fully researched or understand what exactly that does to a pump......
Some pumps such as Sequence where when actually designed where designed for that purpose......It actually causes the motor to downspin, with no ill effects on the pump and in return you use less energy as well when. You can take Sequence Dart and dial it down to roughly 400gph no ill effects and roughly 128W of electric used.....
 

sharkbait9

Active Member
Acrylic not to highjack this thread but I can put a gate valve on my external pump and not worry about burning out my pumps from over head pressure with the gate to throttle back my out put pressure?
I was told that you can’t put a gate valve on a pump period. I wanted to put a gate valve on my outlet to throttle it down, told it’s a bad idea it will burn it out.
 

ninjamini

Active Member
Originally Posted by acrylic51
Didn't mean to offend you ninjamini....
No were cool. Hey when I wrong let me know it.
 

acrylic51

Active Member
Originally Posted by sharkbait9
Acrylic not to highjack this thread but I can put a gate valve on my external pump and not worry about burning out my pumps from over head pressure with the gate to throttle back my out put pressure?
I was told that you can’t put a gate valve on a pump period. I wanted to put a gate valve on my outlet to throttle it down, told it’s a bad idea it will burn it out.
Yes you can control the flow on your pump using a gate valve.....Who advised you couldn't??? Most peope when they run certain size MagDrive pumps stock right out of the box are basically running them restricted.....using the manufacturer output sizing on the pumps.......so they are already restricted with no ill effects......
Restriction within reason though.....Don't take a pump that runs 3000gph and choke it off at 150gph.....Totally stupid and waste of money, but yes it doesn't hurt a pump putting some back pressure on the pump.....
 

sharkbait9

Active Member
Originally Posted by acrylic51
Yes you can control the flow on your pump using a gate valve.....Who advised you couldn't??? Most peope when they run certain size MagDrive pumps stock right out of the box are basically running them restricted.....using the manufacturer output sizing on the pumps.......so they are already restricted with no ill effects......
Restriction within reason though.....Don't take a pump that runs 3000gph and choke it off at 150gph.....Totally stupid and waste of money, but yes it doesn't hurt a pump putting some back pressure on the pump.....

Crap!!!! Damn it, I got two Japanese iwaki pumps that are rated below my max out put on my tanks because the next size up was over the max rate. Man, see this is why I hate tropaquarium.
Well at least with the new 125 I just got now I know I can throttle the pump down and not worry about burning it out.
I wanted to and now will go with the Iwaki md70rlt with a gate and if the o/p pressure is more then the two over flo can handle I can throttle it down.
Thanks acrylic
 
W

winstew

Guest
Originally Posted by acrylic51
Yes you can control the flow on your pump using a gate valve.....Who advised you couldn't??? Most peope when they run certain size MagDrive pumps stock right out of the box are basically running them restricted.....using the manufacturer output sizing on the pumps.......so they are already restricted with no ill effects......
Restriction within reason though.....Don't take a pump that runs 3000gph and choke it off at 150gph.....Totally stupid and waste of money, but yes it doesn't hurt a pump putting some back pressure on the pump.....

Not to stir up anything but I doubt you are using a Gate valve. Gate valves operate up and down and are very bad for throttling, you are most likely using a globe or ball valve.
Side NOTE: Pump damage is caused by cavitation in the impeller housing, or the formation of tiny bubbles either caused by insufficent water at the suction or by a pump spinning at a higher then designed speed. 99% of aquarium pumps are centrifugal pumps which work very well with the outlet throttled but not so well with the suction throttled as described above.
 

murph

Active Member
Well I stopped by my coral dealers on the way home from work and he was able to talk me out of my tare down plans with a half price mag drive.
Pumps that have failed were Rio, Quiteone and Surge brands. No back pressure was ever put on these pumps other than head pressure. The Quiteone and Surge brands actually began to leak votage and trip my GFIs.
If this mag drive dose not last I pretty much see no reason to keep dumping money into these products.
 

acrylic51

Active Member
Originally Posted by Winstew
Not to stir up anything but I doubt you are using a Gate valve. Gate valves operate up and down and are very bad for throttling, you are most likely using a globe or ball valve.
Side NOTE: Pump damage is caused by cavitation in the impeller housing, or the formation of tiny bubbles either caused by insufficent water at the suction or by a pump spinning at a higher then designed speed. 99% of aquarium pumps are centrifugal pumps which work very well with the outlet throttled but not so well with the suction throttled as described above.
Not to doubt your knowledge, but in reference to Sequence pumps they were designed for that and by no means does it hurt to "throttle" any pump.......I never said anything about "throttling it down on the "suction" side of the pump it's always done on the output side......Never mentioned anywhere about the suction side of pumps........
 

murph

Active Member
Well mag drive is still running this morning and none of my GFIs were tripped so this latest pump to go, the quiteone, was most definitely the culprit.
Sadly I believe that most of these manufactures figure in the "fad factor" believing and rightly so that most people will be in and out of the hobby pretty quickly. I have seen it myself.
They then sink more money into there advertising and marketing department than they do the actual production cost of there product and customer be damned.
If they would just put out a quality product to begin with or god forbid take a few less cents profit per unit and put that into there product they would soon find the advertising department an after thought.
 
W

winstew

Guest
Originally Posted by acrylic51
Not to doubt your knowledge, but in reference to Sequence pumps they were designed for that and by no means does it hurt to "throttle" any pump.......I never said anything about "throttling it down on the "suction" side of the pump it's always done on the output side......Never mentioned anywhere about the suction side of pumps........
O I wasn't debatign anything you said. I was just re-iterating becuase there is alot of mis information in this hobby.
 
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