Long Distance Water Pumping

addonnis242

Member
Ok, I'm about to set up a dual water container set up in my garage which is about 60 feet from my display tank. I am trying to find a pump that I can use to pump water from the garage to the display tank via a garden hose for water changes and to fill ATO reservoir. The hose will stretch approximately 60 feet across basically a level surface until it raises to pour into the reservoir or sump for water changes.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated as I am very tired of carrying / dragging totes and bottles of water through my house.

Thanks in advance.
 
I would think if its running horizontally try a MagDrive pump, since your not putting alot of stress on the pump running horizontal. Try a Mag 9 or 12 and see if that works.....Could try and borrow from someone you might know to try it first.
 
I would recommend buying 60 ft of 3/4 inch aquarium grade tubing/hose....

After time there is hazardous chemicals that can leech out of rubber garden hose....You will find people that use them but I prefer not to. Aslo this will allow any standar aquarium pumps mate up with no problem.
 
As far as a pump I think adonnis is spot on with one of the larger mag drives as a suggestion. I believe you eill have to go larger than the mag 12 though to get the performance you want. If you pump new water into your sump like i do you can let it blast out as fast as possible to make the water addition fast.
 
Good point about the garden hose Shane, what do you think about the drinking water grade hoses sold for RV users.

I do have a Mag 9.5 running on my 120 now it just didn't occur to me that it would be strong enough. I was figuring that the distance would possibly burn up the pump in short order as well. I guess I will give it a try to see.

Thanks for the suggestions.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15467700#post15467700 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by addonnis242
Good point about the garden hose Shane, what do you think about the drinking water grade hoses sold for RV users.

I do have a Mag 9.5 running on my 120 now it just didn't occur to me that it would be strong enough. I was figuring that the distance would possibly burn up the pump in short order as well. I guess I will give it a try to see.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Magdrives are built like tanks....I have heard so many stories of people abusing them and not cleaning and they keep on ticking!
 
There's a head loss calculator on the main page on the left hand side that I used to help figure head loss from pumping from one side of the house in the basement to the other side of the house on the first floor. Helped me out a lot to match it up with a pump that would push water up.

I have about 15ft of head loss and use a mag drive 1200. Works great. Not to much flow but not to little either. Takes me less then 3m to do a small water change. I just use gravity to to drain the water into a drain the basement.

Also, I got a nice thick black 3/4" vinyl tubing. Don't think I would trust a garden hose.
 
I use a 50' python and a MJ1200 to pump water from my SW mixing tank to the tank... It does just fine, but only has to push up about 2'. You could make this as intricate and expensive as you want, or cheap and effective.
 
yeah, horizontal distance isn't so much an issue as vertical distance. Vertical head loss is really what taxes the power of a pump.
 
Yeah your horizontal head losses is gonna be like 1 or 2 inches tops, your vertical is 2 ft. So just about about any pump is gonna work... I'd just use vinyl hosing of some sort, not garden hose...
 
Thank you all for the help, I will try the Mag 9.5 this weekend to see what the flow out of it is like at my distance. If its a little too slow I will just get a Mag 12 or so.

Again thanks for all the helpful replies
 
Hey if you get time let us know how this turns out. Also you may want to think about how your going to turn your pump on and off. I.E put valve on end of hose so you can turn it on then walk hose 60 feet to aquarium and open valve (not sure if dead heading pump for the minute it takes to walk there will be an issue. Or are you going to try and wedge hose in somewhere on tank then go back and plug in pump and try and get back to tank to make sure hose stays stuck....nothing major just something to think about. I am pretty certain the mag 9 will work I just think its going to be slower than you prefer.....although I guess everyone isnt impatient like me.
 
I use a Mag 18 to pump my water 10 feet vertically from my basement to my sump in my tank on the first floor. No horizontal pumping. Pumps it like there's no loss at all.
 
I use a Mag24 to pump up two stories with 100 feet of hose and it does great. I use this when I do client water changes in houses and offices.
 
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