Water pump ideas...

[DMD123]

Not a huge savings with Prime Day but got this for $19.19 (Saved $4.80)

power-90W; high lift-39.7ft; flow rate-1180GPH

I liked that is sucked up from the bottom in case I ever needed to drain a tank to empty. Went with the most GPH because Im tired of how long it takes to drain the 300, lol

 

[DMD123]

The pump is pretty nice. Its quite large and the hope is that it can move some serious water out. The actual output looks to only be 3/4”. I didn’t measure but it looks smaller than expected. Now to plumb some tubing to it…

 

[DMD123]

Coming back to this project now. Looking at the barbed fitting out of the pump, it allows to be hooked up to Lee's 1" pond tubing. A bit loose but with a hose clamp should hold. Ive looked through my parts at home and will likely make the hang hook portion with barbed elbow, tubing and hose clamps since this wont cost any additional money and helps clear out unused aquarium parts. I am going to terminate it with a male garden hose fitting. This will allow a regular hose to work.

I was kind of hoping for a super high volume set up with like 1"+ hose out but this really is not the right pump. The provided barb may go into a 1" hose but the part that goes into the pump is only like 1/2" so not really a true high volume pump.

I should have it done by the weekend to be able to test this out. Im going to try a 35' python hose out to determine if this is sufficient, if not then I will try a 3/4" garden hose (25') to see if it improves. Hope is 10 minutes or less to drain to my desired level for water changes.

 

[DMD123]

Went through my "spare parts" bin and ended up using a ton of plumbing stuff I already had. My original idea was to build with PVC pipe but with all the barbed fittings, hose clamps and stuff I had, it made sense to just use it up first. Glue is still curing so it is waiting till tomorrow to test it.

Pic of the full unit


Pump sucks up from the bottom


Made it to hook up to garden hose

 

[DMD123]

In the middle of my testing…

 

[DMD123]

Took about 22 minutes to get it to my normal level of water change. Wish it were a little faster, was hoping for about 5 minutes faster. But I also was using my python hose which is 1/2”? (35’) I want to try it with a shorter 25’ x 3/4” and see if the numbers improve.

 

[DMD123]

Put the pump up against the python in a head to head with two 65B in the garage. I have the same heater placement in both tanks and I drain till the top of the heater shows. Used two identical lengths of hose. The pump did it in 5 minutes with the python took an additional minute. The advantage of the pump is that Im not using additional water to power it like the python.

My next thing will be the 3/4” hose on the 300 to see if I can getter better time.

 

[sir_keith]

I had to pump out a bare 55g sitting on the fish room floor this morning (last 'temporary quarters' tank for my upgrade, which is almost finished), so decided to time it for comparison. I'm getting a flow rate of 5.5g/min with the little pump I posted earlier and a 5/8" hose, which seems to be in the same ballpark as what you're seeing. This is a bit faster than I can fill my tanks with the current setup, so it works fine for me as I'm always changing multiple tanks at the same time. I think a bigger pump would be required to get a much better flow rate.

 

[DMD123]

The pump having a 1180GPH flow rate was a motivator to purchase along with the fact the price was in the $25 range. The math based off those numbers should have had the results faster than the 22 minutes I experienced with apx. 100 gallons being removed. Not sure if I will see a change to that number with the 3/4” hose but I have one on order so we will see.

 

[DMD123]

Used my light weight new hose with the pump this morning and zero difference in time to drain. 22 minutes seems to be the number on this even with a slightly larger hose out. The new hose is so light that its nice to use for this purpose but in the end didn’t matter. I have cut time off a drain and fill but in the end it is still a 45 minute project from start to finish.

 

[Modest_Man]

Not sure what you expected with a $25 pump. You get what you pay for with pumps. I'm assuming the 1180GPH number is with zero head pressure and being a cheap pump any head pressure at all dramatically reduces the flow.

 

[DMD123]

Not sure what you expected with a $25 pump. You get what you pay for with pumps. I'm assuming the 1180GPH number is with zero head pressure and being a cheap pump any head pressure at all dramatically reduces the flow.

I was going by the gph and estimating what I expected it to do in 15 minutes. This has sped things up a little which is fine but looking for another alternative for the future. Got a recommendation for a pump that would give me a real world performance of 100 gallons in 12-15 minutes?

 

[Modest_Man]

I use a Danner/Pondmaster 18 that's rated at 1800GPH with zero head. It takes the 400 gallon down 300 gallons in about 30 minutes. Haven't actually timed it though. So that would be around 100 gallons every 10 minutes. I'm doing some smaller water changes tomorrow and I can get an accurate time for it (will time how long it takes to fill a 5 gallon bucket 50' away).

Amazon.com

I do have a JEBAO DCP 20,000 (variable speed up to 5,000 GPH) sitting around that I'm no longer using that would really take a tank down fast but it would have to run a larger diameter hose to see a large benefit (1.5"). The Danner pump just runs off a garden hose. The JEBAO would drain 100 gallons in about 2 minutes @ 3,000 GPH.

I do have a 2" drain next to my big tank, I just haven't hard plumbed anything in to easily use the large pump. My big issue is water pressure, no matter how fast I drain it it takes me 2 hours+ to refill.

Amazon.com

 

[DMD123]

Thanks for the info @Modest_Man, I was looking for more real world ideas. The pump I got was too good to be true numbers, lol. But for the Prime Day price of $20 it does its $20 worth of work.

 

[Modest_Man]

Okay, some real world numbers. First, the caveats. The pump is old, like 15+ years old. The impeller shaft is really grooved (I looked at it today for the first time in forever after seeing how bad the numbers are). I timed each combination filling a 5 gallon bucket to overflowing.

Python (40') gravity feed - 1.28 GPM
Python (40') with pump - 3.22 GPM
Garden hose (50') with pump - 5.17 GPM
Pump with short garden hose (3') - 11.54 GPM

As you can see the Python hose with the smaller diameter really restricted flow. But even wide open the pump is only pushing about 700 GPH vs. the listed 1800. Like I said, it's old and the impeller is badly grooved. I've had diminishing returns for years but didn't realize how bad it has become.

The big takeaway would be to run the shortest hose, with the largest diameter, and to try to keep it as straight as possible (avoid hard 90's and things like connectors that restrict flow). Head pressure is a bitch.

This might has pushed to to make a custom water change hose with a larger diameter. I usually run the Python to vacuum debris while pumping out water through a garden hose at the same time.

 

[DMD123]

Awesome! That gives me some good ideas what Im looking for.