Pumping water to my tank.

[fishfingers]

Hi All,
Its great to be a part of these forums.
I have 2 drums in which I keep my aged water.Can I pump the water into the tank using a power head placed at the bottom of the tank.If so, which power head do I use ? The drums are located at about 6 meters away from the tank and the drum's height is from the ground to just below the bottom of the tank.
Hope you'll help me out .
thanks

[1977]

Depends on how much money you want to spend and how fast you want to fill the tanks. Jehmco has a pump I have used that is like $30 and does a great job. Just need some plastic hose. You can also look for some bigger pumps on fosters and smith or Jehmco. If you call Jehmco and tell them what you want to do they will get you set up. Of course there are many supply houses who can help you also.

[RyanH]

I picked up a water pump at Home Depot last year for about $60 that's done really well for me.

It's a Water Ace R6S 1/6 hp. I bought an attachment so I could run it through plastic hose and it's been just great. I have tanks that are five feet off the ground and I don't even notice any slow down when filling them. I believe it's rated at about 1500 gph.

The other nice thing about them is that they will drain a barrel almost completely and leave only about 1/4" of water. They also have finger rings on top for easy handling.

Here's a refurbished one I saw on Ebay recently:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Myers-Water-Ace-R6S-1-6-HP-Submersible-Utility-Pump-82_W0QQitemZ6044628791QQcategoryZ42132QQssPageName ZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

hth!

-Ryan

[DiscusStudent]

I beleive I use a similar pump as Ryan and I love it. It was $60 1/6 hp I believe the name is Flotec though it pumps water great doesn't take much time to fill the tanks up. The pump that I have had an attactment on it that I could just attach a garden hose to so that's what I use to run the water. Than I have a PVC "U" shaped attachment that I made that I can just hang on the tank while it fills with a valve so I can stop the flow for a second while I move it to the next tank. I thought $60 was a pretty hefty price to pay, but now that I see how quickly water changes go I'd do it again.

[CAGE-RATTLER]

I'm about to setup some barrels myself (using a 45 breeder tank right now for storage) and wondered about the high flow rates of some pumps.

Im not real sure how strong 1500 gph is but im assuming anything to strong would wash the fish away ...... lol.

Can a valve be put on your line to restrict the flow without hurting the pumps? Especially when filling a fry tank?

I know when i fill mine with aged water the fish tend to sit right where the water comes in. To strong a flow would probably beat the heck out of them .... lol. Especially since i drain my water down to about 1 inch left in the tank.

One other thing ................. I would like to be able to use the same pump to drain the tanks faster with. Does the crud flow right through them easily or would it get trapped inside? Are there filter screens or anything in them?

[Timbo]

i use a big powerhead (aq 802) to pump from storage barrel to the tanks

even tho its not designed for that, it has fulfilled the role admirably

[Cosmo]

My experience is that powerheads don't have enough "head" to pump from the ground up over the top of an aquarium. I used to use one when my storage tank was about 4 feet off the ground, but it didn't have the guts otherwise.

I think the $30 one from Jehmco is the Quiet One 1200, and it will do the job, except when the water gets low in the storage tank it tends to get real slow.

Mag 5's work great.

Cage.. think that pump is overkill for you.. lol You can restrict the output line on a pump, but never restrict the intake... you'll kill the pump.

Jim

[fishfingers]

Thanks for all your replys .they've been really helpful.

i use a big powerhead (aq 802) to pump from storage barrel to the tanks

even tho its not designed for that, it has fulfilled the role admirably

How low and how far was your storage barrel ??

[RyanH]

Im not real sure how strong 1500 gph is but im assuming anything to strong would wash the fish away ...... lol.




They somehow do manage to survive when I change their water Cage.... usually. :p

It sounds like alot of water going into the tank; and it is but it's not as bad as it sounds. Any fish that I've had for awhile are even up at the glass watching me as the water is pumped back in. They don't really seem to mind at all. The only thing I need to be mindful of is the water level because the tanks fill up very quickly. I've overfilled a few tanks before from not paying attention. :o

[1977]

I blow water in their hard and haven't had any problems, you can restrict the flow with a ball valve on the end of your fill hose or by going down to a 1/2 inch tube if it worries you. Personally I want to fill the tanks at blinding speed so in the fishroom I'm building I'm going with all 1" pvc and my 1800 gph pump to fill the tanks.

[korbi_doc]

:D I've been using an old pump by Danner, called a magnetically driven centrifugal pump that I bought in '98....it's a model 7, 500gph @ 5'.... I'm sure the newer ones are even better, but this is great for me...attached a 50' 3/4" garden hose with a ball valve (easy to shut off) & run water from the front to the back of the house, lol..... flow is great! If you're worried 'bout flow for the fish, run the water down the side of the tank, however, my fish actually play in the water flow, & they play in the airstone bubbles too.....lol, Dottie ;) p.s. also have a ViaAqua 3600 that works well too!

[Ardan]

I use a submersible sump pump.
Here is a pic of the way I did it at first, now I have hard plumped from a piece of this flexible hose to pvc near the tanks, then flexible again. It works well. $60 for pump plus hoses. pumps fast

a lot of good ideas in this thread to choose from:)

hth
Ardan

[aben]

Great thread.
Question though for those of you using submersible utility pumps and sump pumps - do you have any concerns about/ problems with oil leakage?

I don't have any experience with sump pumps, but I would think that the ones that are sold at HD and Lowe's wouldn't necessarily be made for use with aquariums and the makers wouldn't be concerned about oil leakage since they figure these things are being used to drain waste water anyways.


aben

[Cosmo]

I've always worried about potential oil contamination from oil lubricated motors as well, but many people swear by them, so :confused:

For anyone not familiar with that line of pump, the "Danner" pump Dottie referred to is generally referred to as a Mag 7.. it's a great pump. I have one in my storage barrels for filling the downstairs tanks and run a nose up from the bottom of the barrel to the ceiling where it connects to pvc piping running to the tanks. If you do something similar to this, make sure you have a checkvalve in the circuit.

If all you're doing is running water from a barrel to a tank via hose, the Mag 5 will do it very well also and is a little less $$.

If you're running any distance though, spend the $$ for the Mag 7.

Jim

[RyanH]

The pump I use is oil-less. :)