Water pump recommendation

[georgiadawgger]

I was wondering what type of water pump would suffice for a water change barrel/container? I saw that Carol recommended a pond pump from Walmart, but I suppose there are others out there. What are you guys using?

One small concern is price...right now BigAls is having a free shipping sale that ends today and I would like to go ahead and order one to get all the necessary equipment/gear I'll need.

How about this one? http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=33300;category_id=2181;pcid 1=;pcid2=

Or this one? http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=27365;category_id=3859;pcid 1=2181;pcid2=

Just found a previous thread discussing this....how is this one? http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=27377;category_id=3867;pcid 1=2181;pcid2=

[ronrca]

There are so many pumps on the market, it is tough to find a good one. Personally, mag pumps have been my favorites due to great price and excellant flow. Atm, I have 4x mag 9 pumps and 2x mag 7. I started 3 years ago with mag pumps and have not had to do anything to them.

Regarding water flow, imo, get the bigger pump. ;) When I intially started with discus, I had a 30G tank with 30G of storage. I bought a Rio 1200. Not bad pump however it took forever to fill my tank. One word of advice! Calculate how long it will take to fill your tank(s) and see if thats acceptable to you. For example, the Rio 1400 that you mentioned has a flow rate of 420gph at 0' head height (meaning how high the pump must push the water up). Given this, the flow is 7gallons per minute. If you are doing 30G wc, it would take you 4.5 minutes. Remember, this is at 0' head height.

Take this same pump and at 4' head height, the flow drops to 243gph or 4gpm. Now your 30G wc is going to take you 7.5minutes.
Btw, here is the link for Rio stats:
http://www.graystonecreations.com/riotable.htm

Regarding where to buy,
Shop around! Apples are apples, mag pumps are mag pumps! Check out ebay and other online stores. :thumbsup:
HTH

[ed8t]

I second ronrca's mag pumps. I have a mag7, pumps out 700gph, which is o.k. for my needs ie. water barrel to tank, top of the tank about 5' from the ground. I use it for both draining and filling one tank.

But if I had to do it again I'd go for the next model up, at least a mag9. When you're doing so many water changes, lets see, minutes saved per day times 365 days in a year adds up to...uhmm...alot! Maybe if I buy a mag9, it can justify another tank...:)

[Alight]

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//showthread.php?t=40578&highlight=Water+pumps

Check out the thread above. It should probably be in the library somewhere.
Somewhere in there will be a link to specifications for pumps as to lift and flow.

The pump you will want depends on your needs, and from point of view, this depends mostly on how high you need to raise your water. Storage tank on the same floor? In the basement, tank on the second floor?

This will dictate the type of pump you will need, and then you can go for the flow rate you want.

I got a waterfall pond pump from Home Depot, because I needed to get the water from my storage tank to the first floor (about 14 feet total) and about 100 feet of distance (the distance doesn't matter that much).

[georgiadawgger]

Appreciate the recommendations...I picked upa 32g BRUTE trash can...umm I'm sure the GF is going to love that in the apartment...maybe I can put an end-table cloth over it or something. :o

[David_Hui]

Mag Pump I have a mag12 and mag9 never had a problem.