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Re: pumps
On Thu, 6 Jul 2000 at 11:49:52 -0400, Dave Gauthier wrote:
>
> Hello, all.
>
> I'm in the process of building (well, actually, playing around with) a sump-type filter for one or more of my tanks. I'm shopping around for a water pump for this setup, and am looking for something that will pump around 200-300 gph at a 5 foot head. With my budget, the Rio pumps and the Mag Drive pumps look like about the best bets, and I was wondering if anyone could give me some recommendations/horror stories about either one. I'm a bit leery of the Rio because of its common description as a water pump/power head, but anyone has used it to successfully pump water to a 5-6 foot head, I'd like to hear about it.
>
> Thanks
>
> Dave Gauthier
> gauthier at vims_edu
>
Dave,
I'm currently using both Rio and Mag Drive pumps. IMO, the Mag Drives
are a much better piece of equipment. I had a Mag 7 which ran
flawlessly for a year and a half until I destroyed it (it was entirely
my fault, but that's another story). I replaced it with a Mag 9.5 and
have never had a problem with it either. I also have a Rio 2500 running
the skimmer on my reef tank and it doesn't seem to nearly have the oomph
that the Mag 7 did, even though they are rated about the same.
I think for what you are doing, a Mag 5 should work fine. It's rate for
500 gph at 0' head. Don't remember what it is at 5', but it's in the
ballpark.
Also, it seems that lately Rio pumps are getting a bad reputation for
puking their innards. If you go to a reef list and search for "nuked
tank" you'll see what I mean...
HTH,
Bob Ashcraft
Pittsburgh, PA
Getting ready to replace my Rio with a Mag... can you spell "oil slick".