Hey guys, returning to hobby after a looong hiatus in midst of a 142 gal custom dream tank build. Obviously equipment and knowledge has expanded quite a bit since 2006, but I don’t need to reinvent the wheel on certain things either. I have a beast of a downdraft skimmer, and I was wondering if they make external DC pumps for those sorts of applications that actually work. When I started my tank build I lived in a urban area, but since then I’ve moved way out to a rural area, and I’m trying to build this baby so that I can withstand week to two week long power outages (Hello fire season). We do have generators, but I’m not always right on hand to go fire up a genny so I’m hoping I can get at least 6 hours off battery if possible. My original idea was to have a small DC pump power one of my OM 4 ways for water flow during outages, but nowadays I see DC has come a long ways. Would it be feasible to run a DC pump for the return on a tank this size? What’s the longevity on these babies? I’m pretty dead set against internal pumps, I’ve had enough issues with them to never ever want to deal with one again, and my tank and sump are both plumbed for all external water moving devices only, hence the dual OM 4-ways vs power heads. Am I chasing unicorns here?
(don’t mind the carpet, we’re pulling the subfloor, reinforcing the structure with some more footers & then installing ceramic tile and a couple oh-crap drains on flex adhesive)
(don’t mind the carpet, we’re pulling the subfloor, reinforcing the structure with some more footers & then installing ceramic tile and a couple oh-crap drains on flex adhesive)