Back up pumps???

[Andrew_bram]

So a later number of us have reef ready tanks what are everyone's thoughts to have a back up return running. What I mean is I am hard plumbed with a reeflo pump well it failed and even though within 24 hours of being discovered that the pump failed it still failed so what if I took say a mag 3 with soft line tubing and the black j tube. And hung it on the back. My thought is this. I might only be turning over about 150 gallons through sump but it would still pass the heater and skimmer good idea or bad idea. Just never fails I go on vacation and have issues. This return pump was 6 months old. Have to have another back up somehow

 

[jda123]

It will be fine for a while. Second return pumps can get expensive at a dollar or two a day. Mag 9, 12 or 18 might be better than a 3, if you have one.

I put a heater in the display for such purposes. It is set about a degree colder than the tank, so it won't even come on unless water fails to be returned. Between the wave box and the heater, this can keep my tank good for days and days if I am not around.

 

[Andrew_bram]

My heater is in display. However all dosing was through sump along with skimmer. I lost a lot of stuff. I was just thinking smallest most energy efficient pump I can get. So that eating a pump fails again it's just running constantly along said main return. I do believe however my reeflo won't fail again it was just dumb luck. Everything you can buy can fail just making this a learning experience

 

[Craigar]

It may not hurt to run two darts one for each return maybe?

 

[jda123]

I forgot about dosing. I feed my reactor from display too, so I guess that I am covered there, but I never considered that. Can you change your doser output to go into the display?

If you are not feeding too much, you can do without a skimmer for a long time - even if you rose to 5 N and .03 P, stuff would not likely die. I usually dial my auto feeder back a bit when I am gone.

Mag 7 is pretty good in water movement combined with wattage - decent bang for the buck for a backup especially when you consider that you can buy a used one pretty cheap. If you want to run it all of the time, then a DC pump will be less in wattage, but way more in purchase.

I never had a sequence pump last much more than a year (new ones) - seals or motors or both... and never at a good time when I had nothing else to do. I got to where I only used them to mix water and for closed loops. I had way better luck with Ampmasters. I just bought a DC Diablo 10500 for my basement sump - I can give you a reliability review in a few years, but the wattage is as advertised (kill-a-watt tested), even at max head.

 

[Andrew_bram]

I could easily move the dosing. But seems as though tank is taking drastic changes. Cyno hair and diatom everywhere mixing 20 g now for wc. Will continue that for a week maybe one every other day. I definitely am thinking dc pump would be good option. 150 gallon an hour isn't much but would be good life support I think. Craig would love to run two darts but I don't have the room. Live and learn is my motto. Maybe I just need to not go on vacation lol.