alright so i just got my mag 9.5 in the mail today and this thing is huge. i have a 55 gallon tank and i just got done building my 20 gallon sump. my eshopps 800gph overflow will be here tomorrow. my question is should i sell this 9.5 and buy the mag 7 is this 9.5 a little overkill for my setup?
mag drive 9.5
- Thread starter mitch303
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insomniac2k2
Active member
that seems like complete overkill for a 55. Even in my 90, im looking to reduce to a mag7. Although since I own it already, Ill probably just wear it out and decide then.
You will get a lot more energy efficiency from moving water around in you DT with propeller driven motors anyway.
You will get a lot more energy efficiency from moving water around in you DT with propeller driven motors anyway.
Don't just valve back the 9.5 put it to work for other things. Either T it off and put the valve on the T so you can run a bypass back into the sump or have other things running off of it like a biopellet reactor or some other kind of device. Just valving back a pump probably just puts more stress on it for no good reason but if you have the capacity why not run other things off of it.
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jimmy frag
New member
you will have head loss anyways, keep the pump, tie in a reactor latter. if you go bio pellets you will wish you kept the 9.5
You can run your return line using PVC flex tubing. That way you can bend and twist it however you like. Using PVC flex will allow you to join it with a regular PVC ball valve. Also, if you run a check valve on your return. It will help reduce the flow about 10%. Good luck
insomniac2k2
Active member
I guess i look at this stuff from another perspective. Living in California, I can litteraly pay for a different pump in a few months savings from using a smaller pump. Electricity here is astronomical. It pays, to get the most efficient pump possible. A mag 9.5 pulls 93 Watts. A mag 5 pulls 45. Thats a huge difference in my world. Anything i can do to stay below the 3rd/4th/5th energy bracket makes more sense to me.
alright so here is a pic of my sump i just set up my concern is the last glass baffle where the bubble trap is. this baffle is 1 inch off the bottom of the tank but runs all the way up to the top of the tank will this determine my water level in my sump or will the waterr level stay at the height of my other 2 baffles? i do not want the whole return section filling up to the top of the tank
http://s1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc495/broncos4ever1/
http://s1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc495/broncos4ever1/
tastydog
New member
Your water level will fluctuate in the last chamber based on how much water is coming out of the tank through the overflow and how much water is going up to the tank from the pump. Since you are using an overflow box, this may become a difficult balancing act with the Mag 9.5. If it were me, I would recommend keeping the Mag 9.5 and not going down to a Mag 7. I have a Mag 9.5 and with the head loss it comes out about okay. You MAY need to add a GATE valve, (not a ball valve), to throttle the pump back a little bit in order to balance out your flow. Then, once you get a stable water level in the last chamber of your sump, as water evaporates off, you will see a drop in the water level in the sump area. As you add more water to the system, you will see the sump level rise. Again, what dictates this is the balance between the flow out of the tank and into the tank.
Again, keep the 9.5 it is a great pump and well worth the money. If you decide to drop to a 7, keep the 9.5 and plumb it in a closed loop circulation system and build a spray bar that rolls the water from the back of the tank, they work GREAT for that.
I have subscribed to this thread if you have more questions.
Brandon
This is not correct. Putting a valve on it does not put any more stress on the pump, it actually reduces the load on the pump by reducing the flow.
Now with that said, if you have larger pump than you need, either get a smaller one or use the extra flow for something else, but do not worry that restricting the output will hurt the pump at all.
Nope, it is moving the water that causes the motor to work. When no water is moved, there is no work performed. So the motor takes less electricity and generates less heat.
http://www.cyclestopvalves.com/geninfo_2.html
No it doesn't. Valving back is no different than attaching plumbing to it. People think nothing of attaching undersized restrictive plumbing to a pump, but worry about a valve. There is no difference. Either way you are adding head to the pump. It doesn't know how you did it.
tastydog
New member
Heat generated is only equal to watts. The wattage of the pump is the only factor in what creates heat. Regardless of the size of the pump, the watts it uses is directly convert into RPM's for the impeller and that is what generates heat. That is simple physics. So, if you have a larger pump, and "throttle it back" with a valve, the RPM's remain the same. It is just less effective. True, there is a change in RPM's due to frictional forces, but they are negligible in this example. The point is, the motor still uses the same RPM's, and produces the same impeller speed, and produces the same heat output proportional to wattage.
The whole point... either use the pump as is, valve it and don't look back, or use the maximum wattage of the pump in a closed loop and highly efficient system or don't. It is up to you. There is A LOT of info out there on these topics and you are the judge, jury and executioner.
Brandon
The whole point... either use the pump as is, valve it and don't look back, or use the maximum wattage of the pump in a closed loop and highly efficient system or don't. It is up to you. There is A LOT of info out there on these topics and you are the judge, jury and executioner.
Brandon
tastydog
New member
Adding head to the pump.... Correct, that is the ENTIRE point of adding a valve. Add "head" to the pump... but that does not imply anything except that you are reducing the efficiency of the pump.
