Has anyone considered using a swimming pool pump for their return pump? Programmable and Variable speed units are quite common and many of us have 'salt water' pools so they should be using materials that don't corrode.
Hey buddy, love the creative thinking on hacking a swimming pool pump for return duty—those variable speed programmable units are flow monsters, and with saltwater pools being so common, they’re built not to corrode in brine. But before plumbing one in, here’s a friendly heads-up on why it might not be the slam dunk for reef tanks, mostly since recreational saltwater pools aren’t the same beast as our delicate reef setups.
Pool pumps are geared for blasting hundreds or thousands of GPM to churn massive volumes, which could turn your display into a coral blender or create dead spots unless you seriously throttle and replumb everything—reef returns thrive on precise GPH tuning, not tsunami surges. Pool “saltwater” usually runs chlorinators turning NaCl into chlorine at 3000-4000ppm with algaecides, stabilizers, and pH buffers that’d wreck reef life, while true 35ppt full-spectrum reef salinity hits seals, gaskets, and impellers way harder long-term, leading to leaks or seizures faster than aquaria-specific gear. They’re also not made for constant sump submersion, so dry-run risks, priming hiccups, or cavitation in tight reef plumbing could fry the impeller quick, and they’ll hum like a lawnmower while dumping excess heat into your water, plus they’re inefficient on head pressure for long runs or reactors compared to optimized DC pumps like Vectras or Danners.
Might save cash upfront for a giant lagoon build with mods, but for everyday reefs, it could mean plumbing headaches and repairs down the road. What’s your tank size and flow targets—could spark some better tweaks! Anyone made this work smooth?
