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Help I need a new return pump on my 180 Gallon reef

Daniel

Daniel

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Hello,
I came home and found my return pump was running hot and I had very low flow coming out of it. What brought it to my attention was the slow water going into my overflow. My pump is a Gen-X PCX40. I did take it apart and cleaned it all up. But No go. So I hocked up my back up pump witch is a Blueline 30 it is a flow pump not a pressure pump.
What I need to know is what pump should I run on my 180 gallon Reef. I did not know if the pump I had was to small or not.
Any info would be great.
Thank you,
Daniel
 
panmanmatt

panmanmatt

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
What size are your drains? What is the head height from pump to the tank? These are things you need to take into account when choosing a return pump. You don't want a pump that is pulling more water than your drains can supply and your head height with reduce the flow of the pump.
 
Daniel

Daniel

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
panmanmatt said:
What size are your drains? What is the head height from pump to the tank? These are things you need to take into account when choosing a return pump. You don't want a pump that is pulling more water than your drains can supply and your head height with reduce the flow of the pump.
Click to expand...
My drains are two 1" each goes 1.25" flex and back to 1". The head height is 5 feet. I thought my Blueline 30 was a flow fatted pump but it is not it is a pressure rated pump.

I talk to Jason at the Hidden Reef and he thinks I should go with a Iwaki Pump Japanese Motor 55 RLT $274.99 I think that might be over kill. It only flows 1080 GPH at o Head. I am not sure what the wattage is.

I could get the Blueline 30HDX with 1110 GPH at 0 head but with max head of 13 feet at 90 watts for $ 139.90

Or go over kill with Blueline 55HD 1100 GPH at 0 head but with a max head of 28 feet and 180 watts for $219.90

I do know that PanWorld makes Blueline pumps.

I do not see me going over 5 feet of head and the 90 watts sound much better to me.

So what do you guys think.
 
H

harryk

Blue line 70D would be a perfect return pump. Where is your sump that you only have 5' of head? Mine is directly below my tank and i have 6' of head loss to the top of the overflows not counting elbows. Are you taking into account all the 90 degree elbows that you might have. If you use flexible PVC you can cut down on them but still. I have a 215 and will be using the 70D which is 1750gph at 0 head. at 5' your output decreases drastically. I think all the pumps you are looking at might be too small. reefcenral has a great head loss calculator go check it out too really see what your head loss would be.

Harry
 
P

pgordemer

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
harryk said:
Blue line 70D would be a perfect return pump
Click to expand...

The only problem I see is the Blueline series, while very quiet and good power useage, heat the water up quite a bit.
 
H

harryk

pgordemer said:
harryk said:
Blue line 70D would be a perfect return pump
Click to expand...

The only problem I see is the Blueline series, while very quiet and good power useage, heat the water up quite a bit.
Click to expand...

It's an external pump there should be minimal heat if any. All the research i did not one person mentioned that. where did you hear or read that.
 
Daniel

Daniel

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
pgordemer said:
harryk said:
Blue line 70D would be a perfect return pump
Click to expand...

The only problem I see is the Blueline series, while very quiet and good power useage, heat the water up quite a bit.
Click to expand...

The Blueline 55HD on my skimmer runs VERY cool all most no heat to the touch. The back up Blueline pump that I am using for my return pump is the same way all most no heat. My Gen-X pump I got lot of heat.
 
P

pgordemer

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
harryk said:
It's an external pump there should be minimal heat if any. All the research i did not one person mentioned that. where did you hear or read that.
Click to expand...

Normally that is true, but the Blueline series (also marketed under a few other names including Posieden) have a good rating, but are know heat adders.

I just picked this at random, but look at the note from Marie Depot on it:
http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_AquariumPage~PageAlias~pumps_poseidon.html

All I am saying is some pumps run hotter than others, external or not.

FWIW, I also run a MAK-4 and for the price and the amount of power used, they are hard to beat. Noisy as hell, but work fine. They are so cheap, I just keep a spare in the closet, swap it out every 6 months and clean it at my leisure.
 
1

120gallons

Daniel said:
Hello,
I came home and found my return pump was running hot and I had very low flow coming out of it. What brought it to my attention was the slow water going into my overflow. My pump is a Gen-X PCX40. I did take it apart and cleaned it all up. But No go. So I hocked up my back up pump witch is a Blueline 30 it is a flow pump not a pressure pump.
What I need to know is what pump should I run on my 180 gallon Reef. I did not know if the pump I had was to small or not.
Any info would be great.
Thank you,
Daniel
Click to expand...

How old is your gen-x? Don't they have a 2 yr warranty? Why not get another gen-x?
 
P

pgordemer

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
pgordemer said:
harryk said:
It's an external pump there should be minimal heat if any. All the research i did not one person mentioned that. where did you hear or read that.
Click to expand...

Normally that is true, but the Blueline series (also marketed under a few other names including Posieden) have a good rating, but are know heat adders.

I just picked this at random, but look at the note from Marie Depot on it:
http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_AquariumPage~PageAlias~pumps_poseidon.html

All I am saying is some pumps run hotter than others, external or not.

FWIW, I also run a MAK-4 and for the price and the amount of power used, they are hard to beat. Noisy as hell, but work fine. They are so cheap, I just keep a spare in the closet, swap it out every 6 months and clean it at my leisure.
Click to expand...

I need to clarify here... The blueline VELOCITY series what I am refereing too, the other blueline models are mostly PanWorld.
 
Daniel

Daniel

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
OK this is what I cam up with.

Head Loss Calculator

Blueline 30x
Total losses are 6.37 feet of head pressure, or 2.75 PSI. with a flow rate of 549 GPH. Process took 63 iterations.
Blueline 40x
Total losses are 7.77 feet of head pressure, or 3.36 PSI. with a flow rate of 794 GPH. Process took 85 iterations
Blueline 55HD
Total losses are 8.48 feet of head pressure, or 3.67 PSI. with a flow rate of 892 GPH. Process took 114 iterations
Blueline 70HD
Total losses are 13.91 feet of head pressure, or 6.01 PSI. with a flow rate of 1438 GPH. Process took 196 iterations
Iwaki 40rtx-2 not sure what one this is
Total losses are 8.99 feet of head pressure, or 3.89 PSI. with a flow rate of 956 GPH. Process took 113 iterations
I hope this might help you to help me.
 
Daniel

Daniel

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
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