Return Pump/Pumps

[HJ99]

Thinking about returns. This will be a 180 gal with a 125 basement sump. About 8 ft head but probably around 12 with fittings and some horizontal. Several suggested running two pumps for redundancy. I was originally planning on an external Pan World 200PS and I'm not buying two of them. Then I saw a Jeabo 10000 DC and two of those would actually be cheaper and according to their graph do about 600-700gph each. My original thought was get the Pan World (which is supposed to be pretty bulletproof) and buy something cheaper for a spare such as a submersible and have fittings set up for a quick change if needed. Thoughts?

 

[Davey-Jones’-Locker]

I’ve had great luck with Jeabo pumps and even found a few on Amazon warehouse that had “damaged” boxes for super cheap. They came brand new with one corner of the box dented. You could probably get two for the price of one “high end” pump. I personally run one full time and have another in the box for backup.

 

[Davey-Jones’-Locker]

I only have about a 4 ft vertical run but I know my Jebao DCP 6500 does not like to run at 100%, lots of whining and vibration so I would size accordingly. I use my wavemakers for the turnover and return is set at 65% to keep things moving through the system

 

[Potatohead]

The cheap stuff is ok if you are going to run two I guess. If it were me I would probably go with a single Iwaki because it will be reliable and last just about forever.

 

[Brett S]

The head pressure charts on the Chinese pumps, like Jebao, are highly optimisic, if not just downright deceptive. You won’t get anywhere close to what they promise on the charts in real life. Additionally, the DC pumps tend to struggle with high head pressure, like you’ll have pushing water up from a basement sump. I suspect that with your head pressure you’d be lucky to get 50-100gph out of that Jebao pump.

I run two return pumps now and one of the reasons that I do is because of a tank I had a number of years ago with a basement sump. The pump died on a friday evening and because it was a basement sump with a lot of head pressure I had no way to get a suitable replacement pump locally, and because it failed on a Friday and I couldn’t even get a replacement shipped until Monday I had to wait nearly a week before the replacement arrived. That was a very stressful week, but luckily everything came out OK.

If you had a small tank with a sump right under it then I’d be a little less concerned about running a single pump because you could always run out and buy another locally if your pump did fail. But in your situation where you’re looking at a specialized pump then I would seriously consider running two or at least keeping a spare on hand.

 

[Cell]

Might find some useful insight in this recent thread

If you had to replace your return pump tomorrow, what would you get?

Either a shop vac, or a leaf blower :D (Another jebao, never fails)

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Delatedlotus]

HJ99 ... There is ONLY one pump to both buy and use. I bought a **Japanese Iwaki 100r** 23 years ago it pumped right at 1900 plus.. gallons an hour 135 plus gallons per min. !. I run 265 gallons total on my system. 2 tanks a 90 and a 110 and a 100 gallon sump of sorts a 100 gallon horse trough lol. Heavy duty pumps these are and with a huge head height. It went bad on me right at 4 months ago now. I bought another one from BRS ( I shopped very extensively both new and USED 1st ) for $478 dollars free freight. I would use NO OTHER PUMP PERIOD ..! It lasted right at 23 years! 365 days a year, 24-7, for 23 years. That breaks down like this.. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week = 168 hours a week, 168 hours x 365 days a year = 61,320 hours in a year, 61,320 hours x 23 years = 1,410,360 TOTAL HOURS THIS PUMP HAS RUN NON - STOP... NOW you tell me is there a better pump out here..? Really tell me... no other pump will last this long ever! They have never changed anything on these pumps at all. I did talk to the factory direct no changes ever. Take this to the bank period... Oh and I got the dark gray replacement pump just like "I" had before from BRS aquarium ** Japanese only.