Plankton-safe sump pump?

[ezrec]

UPDATE:

So far, my research has lead me to "vortex impeller" pumps. The 'vortex' impeller creates a suction area, but solids in the water stream do not impact the impeller.

These are often sump and dirty water upright pumps, and few are saltwater tolerant. Most that are saltwater tolerant are "direct drive" with oil-seals (unsuitable for an aquarium!), and the 'sump pit' style uprights cannot be used for circulation.

However, I have found some promising items:

*Pondmate "Dirty Water" pumps
*Laguna "Max Flo"
*Beckett Large Waterfall Pump

My 'prototype' is the inexpensive Beckett wet rotor/wet bearing pond pump (650 GPH) that I purchased at Home Depot.

It's not designed to run out-of-water (ie, as a circulation pump), but can be easily modified to do so (epoxy shut the impeller housing). I am a little concerned about the long term utility of the Beckett pump, since its shaft is stainless steal instead of ceramic, but I don't plan to grow anything other than algea and artemia in my tank for now, so I have no worries right now.

So far, I have done a few tests (pumping wads of chaeto), and the pump is holding up very well, and not spitting out chaeto puree.

I'll report back in a week or so as to how my Artemia fare against it.

 

[eric.m.s]

i'd use the laguna max-flo...be careful though as some of the impellers have brass in them. i believe the newer ones have eliminated this. this is the same "pump" that royal exclusive uses for their red dragons, but they claim to alter the internals and they also change the volute.

 

[ezrec]

Artemia have no chance against any impeller pump, AFAICT.

However, I now have lots of plankton in my tank - the water is pea-soup green with phytoplankton, and lots of macro-scopic copepods.

Anyone in Pittsburgh need phytoplankton? I can evidently make buckets of the stuff with my setup.

 

[eric.m.s]

i was simpley suggesting that pump as it's well made and efficient....we do not have the ability yet to have live and growing plankton cultures in our water column, hence why we dose it. most of the fauna is near rock and sand so pumps are not of much concern. bacterioplankton and dosing is the best we can get right now imo.

in the future though i could see this being very helpful. i wonder the effect of a gro-tech plankton reaktor+bacterioplantkon system+vortex impeller would be? with my student loans that "experiment" is not going to be happening anytime soon :lol: but it would be a very neat set up from an equipment perspective.

 

[ezrec]

phytoplankton - easy as pie. I see little to no mortality at under 4mm in my setup.

zooplankton - A little harder. My Beckett pond pump seems to have a low mortality rate on the copepods that get sucked into it (sub 4mm), but it could be better!

 

[jpwilburn]

I have been reading a book about ecosystem modeling, a little heavier than typical aquarium stuff, and these people converted two hand bellows pumps to feed their 130 gallon reef setup. They have had the system running for over 10 years, and listed no problem with failures. Also, they said that they have had success with sexual coral reproduction...

The table in the book that listed the species present in their tank covered 3 pages or so. The book is:

Dynamic Aquaria: Building Living Ecosystems by Adey and Loveland. (They worked with/at the Smithsonian Institute..and cover the reef aquarium there in the book as well.

They have detailed explanations of their entire setup (algal turf scrubber, etc.) and have a picture of their pumps, but unfortunately did not say how their conversion was done... shouldn't be too hard though.

 

[Anonymous]

IF your using that set up as a model, do a search on how that tank turned out for them in the long run. They history is quite well published.

 

[Anonymous]

I read Dynamic Aquaria and really got into it more than 10 years ago. I went to the Smithsonian and got a back stage tour of the exhibit. This exhibit is no longer open unfortunately. I used there technique quit successfully for many many years. You can see the results on my web site and a few articles that I had published on this more natural way of keeping a reef tank. http://asaherring.com (non-commercial site) In the upper left hand corner of this post, you can see a rendering of the splash from my elongated dump bucket.

After relocating, I am starting a new tank and am looking for all the latest tricks. Unfortunately, I have not found a really good non-traumatic pump. The few that were used by the followers of Dr. Adey are big and/or do not work that well for a home sized tank as admitted in the book. They are still looking, as am I. This would be the Holly Grail.

I am a design engineer but am also dyslexic. Therefore, I did not quite get how some of these suggestions would work and the web sites that were mentioned did not point specifically enough for me to find what you were talking about.

I can do a little experimentational construction if there are any really good ideas. I do have a plan for a high volume pump non-traumatic but it is big and will be a little pricy. I will be like a column beside the tank. After I get my tank up and running, I hope to start my second prototype. My first test of concept went well but I have not had the time to devote to such a big project.

I could however; (perhaps) build a small drive head if there was a good simple idea to work on. Please explain any ideas that you may have for this type of pump.

 

[salty joe]

With the right air pump, 100 gph @ 4' is no problem. Look at the pumps the eco-wheel uses. Something like 1200 gph @ close to 4'.