Basement Sump Havers....

[fritz]

I'm looking for the correct pump to get 900 GPH at about a twelve foot head and still have enough force left to power a beckett skimmer without using 400 watts.

Thoughts?

 

[Dace]

good Luck

 

[loismustdie]

I'm looking for the correct pump to get 900 GPH at about a twelve foot head and still have enough force left to power a beckett skimmer without using 400 watts.

Thoughts?

Manhattan Reefers complain way too much. Talk about wanting your cake and eating it too. What's next? Are you going to ask for a piece of equipent which will maintain great water quality yet is cheap and requires no maintenance?
You know better Fred. Pros and cons.
I'm running the Hammerhead on my system. 315 watts. It runs my Beckett skimmer, 2 PO4 reactors, chiller, my frag tank will be in this week (I've ran one before off of this pump) and I still get around 3200 GPH 14 feet away upstairs in my main display. My electric bill is a lot lower than people using multiple Mag Drives on their systems. I think you may be able to get away with a Barracuda, but I really wouldn't know since I don't have one.

 

[fritz]

What's mucking this up is the head calculation on a T'd 1 foot head and a 12 foot head.

I need about 800 GPH at 1 foot and about 900 at 12 feet. How do you figure that out? Sure I could just go big but if I don't need to why do it? You run a non pressure pump for your application. The nonpressure rated for mine is about 310 watts which I'm cool with. The pressure rated option is about 225 watts. This is for Sequence pumps only I know some members recommend Iwakis.

I'm also looking for input from beckett users, everyone says you need a pressure rated pump to run a beckett, but you don't use one. At a one foot head do I need a "pressure rated pump" or can a pump that can handle a 25 foot head but is not pressure rated handle it?

I'm sure there are some other people who have a similar setup that can toss in some 2 cents.

Also it needs to be DEAD silent and not vibrate or give off any heat and cost less than $50 <--------Joke

 

[Dace]

I'm running the Hammerhead on my system. 315 watts. It runs my Beckett skimmer, 2 PO4 reactors, chiller, my frag tank will be in this week (I've ran one before off of this pump) and I still get around 3200 GPH 14 feet away upstairs in my main display. My electric bill is a lot lower than people using multiple Mag Drives on their systems. I think you may be able to get away with a Barracuda, but I really wouldn't know since I don't have one.

Chris can you take a pic so i can see how you plumb all this to your hammerhead. also what reactors are you using for PO4

 

[loismustdie]

Dave, I built a manifold. Look at my tank link. Those were taken before a I switched to the beckett, but it still looks the same, only there's a beckett skimmer instead of a ER.
Fred, 225 watts to control all you gear. That sounds pretty good to me.
If you remember something we talked about yesterday (complete system), I was planning a Barracuda, but I may try a Dart and try to run one of my DIY beckett skimmers off of it. If it doesn't work, who cares? I have the dart here collecting dust since I'm on hold with the mesh wheel skimmer build. Besides, my becketts are designed for efficiency using less flow.

 

[fritz]

Manhattan Reefers complain way too much.

Your self included? (See below)

Talk about wanting your cake and eating it too. What's next? Are you going to ask for a piece of equipent which will maintain great water quality yet is cheap and requires no maintenance?
You know better Fred. Pros and cons.
I'm running the Hammerhead on my system. 315 watts.

Thanks! That's exactly what I was looking for! Less than 400 watts and still more than enough flow. I'm not asking for the impossible, you provided me with a sub 400 watt pump that does three times what I asked for. Not only does your pump fit the bill it's overkill.

I think you like to complain

 

[fritz]

Yeah I can't wait to see the Dart beckett.

 

[Dace]

i used Iwalki's for that reason. but pressure pumps are high on elec and is one of the reasons i'm doing my system all ovr. i ran a 100rlt for my application.i will be selling a 70rlt in a few weeks if you need one...

What's mucking this up is the head calculation on a T'd 1 foot head and a 12 foot head.

I need about 800 GPH at 1 foot and about 900 at 12 feet. How do you figure that out? Sure I could just go big but if I don't need to why do it? You run a non pressure pump for your application. The nonpressure rated for mine is about 310 watts which I'm cool with. The pressure rated option is about 225 watts. This is for Sequence pumps only I know some members recommend Iwakis.

 

[loismustdie]

Where was my complaint? I gave you specs.
I'm not getting into the dart beckett yet. I still gotta finish what I got now and that is something that's really a toss up. Full systems. Not one piece

 

[fritz]

Pshht

Alright then lets right turn this thread.....

Do you really need a pressure rated pump to run a beckett? If you use a non pressure rated pump that can handle say a 20 foot head and push 2400 GPH will it do as well as a 1200 GPH pressure rated pump (assuming you're going to be T'ing this off)?

 

[kris]

Ampmaster 3k powers my beckett in the basement with the balance going
thru 12 feet of spaflex to the display. Maybe uses 150-200 watts with little heat. If you don't like Amps. try the Hammerhead.

 

[fritz]

Wow that's great info thanks.
Exactly what I was looking for. Out of curiosity how do you like the pump? How's the heat/noise?

 

[kris]

So far so good with the pump. I know some guys that have run them for 4 years without ever shutting them down, others have had problems with the seals. I think the newer ones have that fixed. I think Dolphin plays with the electrical ratings. Usage is more than the marketed 150 watts, but still less than most pumps. It just made sense to me to use 1 pump for the return and the beckett. As far as noise goes, it's about the same as my Dart on the closed loop. Heat's not an issue. 3 HQI's in a closed hood and no Chiller!
Go for it... where's the downside?

 

[loismustdie]

Go for it... where's the downside?

Well, there is a downside. Skimmers run best with a dedicated pump. A beckett is the only one you can really try this with. The reason I do it is because a beckett not running at max performance is still better than a NW that is running at peak. So the downside isn't all that bad if you ask me.
I've seen fluctuation's in my skimmate. But the waste containers shut down the skimmer when they are full, so I don't care.
Overall, this works well for me. I like it and will probably never use a NW again as long as I can keep doing this.

 

[kris]

Chris, I see what you're saying, but If I dedicated the pump I would have to throttle it back. Instead the other 20% feeds the display. My fluctuations are from the stupid zeo reactor, but that will be gone soon.

 

[loismustdie]

Throttling back a dedicated pump can also get expensive. What we've done is a compromise. We've sacrificed the consistency for saved wattage/heat. I wasn't trying to sharp shoot you. I'm just saying that it's not a perfect solution. I think it's cool that a few of us are doing this and can compare.

 

[cali_reef]

Single or dual beckett skimmer?

You can compensate pressure lose or lower pressure pump by having more flow in a beckett.

You are not going to find a pump to do what you want running less than 250W. I don't think AMP3K will do what you described, I have one in my basement you can have for $100 if you think it will work.

 

[fritz]

Man it was humid last night. In my last apartment I got away with no chiller by using a sunpod, which is an open air MH fixture. This allowed (quite a bit of) evaporation which kept the tank pretty cool in spite of the 300watts of MH over a three foot tank. I also had a room air conditioner to help out on the humid days set to turn on around noon and keep the room at 78 or so degrees. That solution worked very well.

In the new home the fish tank is on the first floor, the floor plan is open and a "room air conditioner" will need to cool off about 1200 sq feet. So rather than run a 220v air conditioner all day to keep my tank cool I'm looking at other options.

1. Chiller vented outside- Eh, I don't know why but I'm not crazy about a chiller. It seems like a lot of juice to keep my tank cool.

2. Plumb into the basement - I love this idea but if I'm going to burn 225 watts 24-7 and 365 I'm better off with a chiller for three month out of the year.

I was thinking of building a platform in my basement for the sump to sit on, this way it would be a much lower head pressure to work against, still give me the benefit of basement plumbing and not burn so much juice. I figure if the platform is about 5 feet tall I should only have about 8-9 feet of head pressure.

Any thoughts?

 

[loismustdie]

Fred, after seeing your basement, I like the idea of the elevated sump. There are a lot of things that can be done there. You would also be suprised how much less a chiller needs to turn on when the water flows down into a cooler basement with no lights on the water.