Water pumps which are good and which are bad?

[Electrobes]

Into the market for a water pump for the return on my refugium to my main tank, wanted to see whate veryone thought, thanks!

 

[reefrunner69]

Mag drive
lil giant
quiet one
dolphin
____________
Good

Rio
____________
BAD!!!

These are pumps I have personal experience with.

 

[captivereefs]

Sen and Sedra also make nice pumps. Rio's are ok for a cheap pump but you have to be extremely vigil with cleaning them or failure can occur.

 

[scuba_steve]

i dont know about the new gen rio but the older models imo are not worth the .50 in plastic!! stay away from these as a return cause they fail to restart alot !!! mag drives are better but imo run on the warm side but fro the money who cares right heheh !

 

[Bearfan]

I've got a mag-drive which I throttled down with a ball valve, and it seems to work just fine. It did heat up the water when I had the sump closed, but I opened it and it's been fine since.

 

[scuba_steve]

yea on my 90 i run a mag drive 24 & 9.5 and little giant and water went up like 5 degrees !! and the 90 top is all open and the 55 gallon fug is open along with the 50 sump is open still warmed the water alot !! also when i got the mag 24 was surprised to read that they say not to use these inline for salt water as well !!! why i dont know !! would think fresh or salt inline or not would be the same diff !!

 

[Electrobes]

What do you guys think of the Via Aqua?

 

[scuba_steve]

there sooooooooooooooooooo cheap makes me worry but as mabe a ph it be ok but imo there a big diff between a ph and a pump !! so to use it as a return would be a nono imo

 

[loganj]

Good submersibles include the Danner Mag Drives and the Dolphin DP series. I don't like Rio. External pumps...my favorite is Blueline followed by Little Giant and Iwaki.

 

[blaster]

Does water pump mean filter if so I have the Eheim Pro II which I find very good and also super quiet.

 

[Electrobes]

hehe no water pumps are just that... water pumps (they are mainly used for sumps, to retuirn water back to the main tank, but can also be used for other applications)

 

[scuba_steve]

no water pump is just the pump !!

 

[jamal-188]

I have a magdrive 9.5 that works great. I also have a cap2200 that was really cheap and came with my wet/dry that I now use on my DIY wet/dry for my 44g. It's been working fine for 8+ months but I'd never buy one know that I know better. I also use a rio on my SOS skimmer but I should really change that out to something more reliable.

 

[Electrobes]

whats wrong with the cap2200.. I was right about to ask about it Thats funny I have a DIY fuge that I am looking for a water pump for, plus a skimmer too

Also does the increase flow in a skimmer usually used for a higher bio load? I have a coral only tank...

 

[Electrobes]

Just to recap as I have been researching like crazy over these pumps and still not sure what to get.. I have a 45G tall tank, with a 29 gallon refugium that I just built ((pic) To the left of the pic is the intake for the refugium and skimmer to get rid of bubbles, the middle protion is the DSB and plant compartement, and the right-hand portion is the water pump compartment.)

I came to understand that I need a semi-slow flow for the refugium to be effective. Based on that kowledge which pump would you guys suggest be used as a return in my tank (brand name and model).

As for the skimmer its confusing to see that in retail the pumps used are not as high as my own that I want to use (RIO 1400), yet I am being told to get one that will probably be a lot higher than my return! 8O

So yeah thats the situation in recap for my 45G tall reef tank. Thanks

 

[jamal-188]

whats wrong with the cap2200.. I was right about to ask about it

Well, it's been working fine so far but they sell for like $25 on ebay and are rated at a pretty high GPH(forget offhand) So i'm assuming they are not a quality pump that will be very reliable.