Pump for Filling 120gl aquarium with fresh water

[cvtbenhogan]

Hi All

Finally I have a decent basement to work with and my plumbing can get more exotic. Baby steps first of course.

Right now and the good news, I've got a 1 inch drain pvc drain pipe and takes out 50% or 60 gallons of water in 10 minutes. Nice and fast, and right into a sump 20 feet away.

Problem is, I'm still using a mag drive pump with a flexible hose to fill the tank. It takes a long time and I'd rather not deal with a this pump in a 50 gal rubbermaid barrell. Hits heaters at the bottom and gets scummy, and don't like the plug arrangement. I think it would be easier to just set up a outside pump that draws water out of the barrell and over to the aquarium. I assume these pumps also can be in bigger sizes and I can better the flow rate than my magdrive.

Proposed Solution. Use a 500 gph little giant type pump and draw out water from my 4 ft 50gl rubbermaid trash can and transfers the water back through a 3/4 inch PVC pipe that travels six feet horizontally and then goes over the back of the tank, approximately 5 ft high. The hose from the trash can to the pump would be flexible and the connection from the pump could be either directly to the pvc line or flexible for the time being.

Does this seem reasonable?? Is 500 gph enough or too much??

:confused:

[Dkarc@Aol.com]

Where is the trashcan located? Same floor/level as the tank? Which pump you use will really depend on how fast you want to fill it. There are lots of options for the plumbing layout, just depends on how fancy you want to get and how comfortable you are with tools (and your plumbing skills).

From the sound of it, you want to have the pump sitting next to the trashcan, but pull water up and over the top and then to the aquarium, correct? A pump that small will not be able to do that as they are not self priming. A better solution would be to drill an appropriately sized hole and use a Uniseal or bulkhead fitting (depending on shape of trashcan) near the bottom and have the pump pull water through that fitting. This will ensure the pump always has flooded suction.

If you only have 1 tank and it's relatively close to the trashcan, hard plumb the line. Dont mess with hoses if you dont have to. Put a ball valve at the end of the line (tank side) to adjust flow and/or turn flow off.

Determine how fast you want to fill the tank. Tell us where the trashcan is located at, in relation to the tank. We'll be able to help you with a design/layout from there.

-Ryan

[DonMD]

I'm going through this at the moment. Pumping water from the basement up 12 feet to the aquarium on the floor above, through hard-piped 3/4" tubing. Currently have a Danner MagDrive 18, but am unsatisfied with the time it takes to pump. So, I've ordered a QP19. You can check out on page 236 of this catalog: http://mastercatalog.aquaticeco.com/.

[Dkarc@Aol.com]

I'm going through this at the moment. Pumping water from the basement up 12 feet to the aquarium on the floor above, through hard-piped 3/4" tubing. Currently have a Danner MagDrive 18, but am unsatisfied with the time it takes to pump. So, I've ordered a QP19. You can check out on page 236 of this catalog: http://mastercatalog.aquaticeco.com/.

Good choice with the QP19. Definitely has a higher pumping curve than a MagDrive. That is the main reason why im not that fond of the MagDrive's, aside from being a simple circulating pump.

-Ryan