Mag pump users..

[fishman]

I have a return pump (Mag 12) for my 100 gallon. Its been up and running now for 3 years. I have never cleaned it. I cleaned it between the 1st and 2nd year it was in use. However when I went from a 125 tank to the 100 now, I hard didnt think for the future and basically put all of the hard PVC in and now there is no disconnect without cutting and splicing the PVC...which is what I plan on doing soon.
However, when would you guys suggest I replace the Mag? Its 4 years old and running well. Still alot of push so do I wait until it goes out? Do I change it now?
Thanks!

 

[Innovator]

Use it till it stops or starts declining in production, but it would be wise to always have a backup handy

 

[melosu58]

I totally agree that a backup would be nice for those unexpected emergencies.

 

[tecwzrd]

A back up Mag 12 will run you $105 on bestnest.com with free shipping which is where I bought my Mag 9.5. Great prices and service and the pump shipped to my house in 2 days and came with the pre-filter.

IME they run forever and is the best pump I have owned. Still I clean them out once a year though.

 

[fishman]

Well I have a Mag 18 that has never been out of the box under my bed. Its a bit overkill for a 100 gallon tank but I will make it work. I have a LFS that said they will trade me a Mag 12 for my Mag 18 and call it even. I dont know if I want to do this or not.

 

[tecwzrd]

Well I have a Mag 18 that has never been out of the box under my bed.

You'll get around 1300 GPH with a 4 foot head and if you plumb 3 or 4 outlets into the tank using Loc-Line you probably could get away without using any ph in the tank

As far as the "even" trade the price between the two online is only $20 so it might be worth it if you don't want to deal with the excess power of the Mag 18.

 

[fishman]

I have the mag 12 now running and have it running like on 2 different routes with 3 outlets. Funny you mention the P/H's as I did some adjusting the other day to one of my overflow boxes and was able to open the Mag 12 up all the way as I had it throttled down. Im thinking of pulling out maybe 2 of the 6 P/H's I have in the tank as the corals are whipping around now like crazy. I had the mag 12 only around 1/2 output. Now that its opened up I assume I have a lot of flow now that I didnt before. OR I can use the P/H's to address dead spots now.
Also right now I have 4ft head from the pump to the top of the outlet.