What external Pump to use?

[jtro]

Just looking for some advise and or suggestions.

I currently have a 240 gallon main tank,40 gallon frag tank and I am planning on adding another 55 to 75 gallon tank in line with them.What external pumps have you used and recommend.

Thanks

Jim

[zoozilla]

I'm presently using a Reeflo Barracuda as my main pump which runs water from my 75 sump to my 50 frag, 40 fuge, and 150 Display. It also feeds my skimmer, CaRx, and 2 x Media Rxs with more flow to spare. Runs pretty cool, extremely quiet, reliable, and pretty energy efficient. If you're looking for more flow, I'd recommend the Reeflo Hammerhead. Reeflo has a line of pressure rated pumps as well. Though, I have not personally used them.

[davelin315]

I'll echo Dan. These pumps are also very reliable. I have 2 used ones on my system and one new one and the only problem I have had with them is that on the new one I cracked the volute by wrench tightening. They produce tons of flow, are relatively quiet, and are fairly energy efficient (considering how much energy is being pumped through that single room of my house).

[F&Fmgr]

I like the reeflo pumps as well

 

blue line/panworld pumps are nice as well because they maintain high flow rates at high head pressures and theyre cheaper I believe.

[Jon Lazar]

Just looking for some advise and or suggestions.

I currently have a 240 gallon main tank,40 gallon frag tank and I am planning on adding another 55 to 75 gallon tank in line with them.What external pumps have you used and recommend.

Thanks

Jim

 

Lots of ways to do this, but you might consider a few smaller pumps rather than one large pump. Also, when you add the 55-75g tank, are you using whatever new pump for water motion inside the tank, or just to exchange water with the rest of the system? I feed my 55g frag tank with a MJ1200, but use two Korallia 4s to provide motion inside the tank.

[Origami]

Just looking for some advise and or suggestions.

I currently have a 240 gallon main tank,40 gallon frag tank and I am planning on adding another 55 to 75 gallon tank in line with them.What external pumps have you used and recommend.

Thanks

Jim

 

A loose rule-of-thumb has been to target 3-5 times your display tank capacity through your sump. In your case, you have around 355 gallons of "display" (but you've not said anything about your sump). Thus, you're looking at anywhere from about 1,100 to 1800 gallons per hour of turnover that will flow through your main pump. (This assumes that you'll supplement flow in your displays using other means such as power heads, surge devices, etc.)

 

Now, assuming that you everything is on the same floor in your house and assuming that your plumbing size is sufficiently large and the runs are short and simple, you may have around 6- to 8-feet of head pressure (static + dynamic) on the pump. So you're looking for a pump that can deliver on this requirement.

 

I'm a strong supporter of having a reliable, power efficient return pump. People often forget about power efficiency but, when running 24/7, the cost of operating a pump becomes a very real consideration. For what we pay for electricity these days, the cost of operating a device comes out (in very rough terms) to be about $1 per watt per year. That is, a 100 Watt return pump will cost you around $100 a year to run. Because of this, you may find that a more expensive pump may pay for itself in operating savings in a surprisingly short time.

 

Reeflo's flow-biased pumps (Snapper, Dart, Barracuda & Hammerhead) all offer (1) great power efficiency - high flow-to-power ratio, (2) quiet operation, (3) demonstrated reliability, and (4) a 3-year warranty. In recent years, with their increased use of Baldor motors, reliability has increased.

 

Assuming that you have 6-8 feet of head pressure to overcome and an 1800 gph requirement, you're best match would be a Dart which delivers 2,150 gph (at 8') while consuming 153 watts (that's $153 a year to operate). The Barracuda is next up, delivering 3,333 gph while consuming 250W followed by the Hammerhead which delivers around 5,000 gph for around 370W.

 

For the lower end of the head-flow range (6' of head, 1100 gph), you might get away with a Snapper (at around 120W), but I think that you'd be undersized and may want the additional margin of a Dart or larger.

 

You can find Reeflo's flow charts at this link: http://www.reeflopumps.com/images/Flow_charts_Standard_Pumps.xls

 

A snapshot of the chart is provided below:

 

By the way, I've run three external Reeflo pumps on my system: A Wahoo (pressure-biased), a Barracuda and a Dart. The Wahoo is a pressure pump that is more suitable to overcome large head pressures. It was replaced to reduce operating costs. The Barracuda was an interim, cost-efficient pump before I settled on the Dart. All three were very quiet pumps, never failed me, and managed to sell me on Reeflo's products.