Advice On A Return Pump

[reef keeper]

i had an iwaki 55 RLT which was loud, but effective. It also jacked up my hydro bill!

I bought a water blaster 7000, but it doesn't have the capacity to pump my water from the sump through all the return piping. It is on and off all the time, and is useless for my application.

I need some help on a pump for in sump use that can handle more than 14 ft of head.

It has to be quiet and energy efficient.

Thanks!

 

[Neopimp]

that's going to be a bit difficult to find, unicorn pump

may I ask why your return pump is on and off all the time.

 

[AdInfinitum]

Yup....no free lunch...no magic formula...you want to move the water you pay the hydro... If there was something more efficient we'd be using it in industry. An external gen-x, blue line or Iwaki is as good as it gets what flow do you need at 14'?

 

[Quartapound]

I think he meant its off and on because of the head pressure being exceeded and the pump shutting down

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[BigReefer]

I just give the wife money to pay the bills .... no questions ... and i buy her a gift every few months ... maybe why she doesn't give me shit about the bills

 

[reef keeper]

I have maybe 900 gph with the iwaki. The noise is just too much.

The pump is on and off because of the head pressure.

I ordered the Ecotech L1 from BRS

 

[Sewerat]

I run the jabeao 12000 I think it is? DC pump and if got 12-14 ft head Run 1 1/2 pipe as far as I could then down to 3/4 thru the floor and into the tank seemed to help cut down on pressure. Got pump from pets and ponds for less then $200 if I remember

 

[Nighthawk26]

I have maybe 900 gph with the iwaki. The noise is just too much.

The pump is on and off because of the head pressure.

I ordered the Ecotech L1 from BRS

How large is your display, and how many GPH are you looking for? What the actual vertical and horizontal pipe run? I ended up with the Reeflo Barracuda Gold. Flows a ton, but of course the hydro isn't amazing. I'm around 230watts or so I believe. I'm curious about the L1 although won't cut it for me I'm sure.

 

[reef keeper]

I have a reverse 220 - 72 x 24 t x 30 w and a 125 g sump. I just installed the L1 as an internal. You would never even know it's on and pushes way more water than the iwaki. I think it's a game changing pump.

I ordered it from BRS. The exchange rate hurt, but so be it lol.

I'm running it at 70% and am going to change out my skimmer pump tomorrow. I'll use the coral vie for that.

 

[heath]

that is awesome, personally, I don't think that you can beat an internal skimmer, just my 2 cents...

 

[reef keeper]

Well we can agree to disagree. I'm running the return pump internal. Still have the iwaki running the skimmer but that's gonna be over soon.

Looking forward to getting this thing quieted down.

 

[AdInfinitum]

Wait a minute...your tank is in the basement isn't it?? How do you figure that you are pushing 14' of head?

 

[reef keeper]

The return is on the far side of the sump. It then goes back to the middle, then splits to the top corners of the aquarium to 2 returns. With the 45s and plumbing parts it's around 14'.

The coral vue pump can push 3m of head pressure, and it wouldn't work.

So it's 12-14 ft of pressure.

 

[Deptron]

I'm probably wrong but I always thought head pressure was only the vertical height the pump has to push not the horizontal.

 

[Nighthawk26]

This was why I had asked him the total length. Both vertical and horizontal. There is little to 0 loss with horizontal runs. I'm about the same had loss but I have over 45 ft. lots of elbows, etc. I was curious to OP's setup and how this pump works for him as a consideration for myself whenever my existing kicks. I don't think it will cut it. Not with the flow I'd want. At 14ft this thing looks to flow like 800 or so GPH.

 

[Pipes]

Head pressure would be measured from the base of the pump vertically to the top most exit. ie. Total vertical lift. Not horizontal. However there is some weight to the water in a horizontal artery; but you would have to have a large diameter pipe to really have to worry about it.

 

[TORX]

When determining total head loss, everything vertical, horizontal and all elbows are taken into consideration as well as friction. Albeit, horizontal does not have a large effect unless the horizontal is after a vertical as the water weight is still pushing back on the pump while still needing to overcome friction

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[reef keeper]

All I can tell you is that the Ecotech L1 is moving a ton of water at 70%. It completely moves the surface, which I wasn't getting before with the iwaki. The coral vue pump was barely able to move any water and was onoff all the time. I just changed out my other iwaki for the coral vue pump for the skimmer. My tank is now completely silent, other than the hood fan, and the water coming back to the sump from the skimmer.

This is an absolutely unbelievable reduction in noise and my amps have dropped big time as shown on the apex.

However you calculate head loss, it is more than 3.5m the way I have it set up.

I'm going to go out on a limb and 100% endorse the new Ecotech pump. Completely silent.

 

[AdInfinitum]

How is the venturii working with the new pump? Mostly they are about pressure not volume but I have not used a Mazzei before.

Traditionally DC pumps have a relatively short service life in continuous run, high load environments with replacement and service costs more than offsetting the power savings. It will be interesting to see if they have overcome that issue.

 

[reef keeper]

Skimmer is still working bad ass.

I'm curious as well about the life cycle of the Ecotech pump. If they actually got that right as they have the new QD vortechs, it's a game Changer.