return pump suggestion

[lastpikd]

My aquarium has been sitting in storage for a few years waiting for the day that I moved into a permanent place to set it all up. It finally happened and I finished the plumbing early yesterday. My return pump that I had is a Quiet One 4000 High Head. I got everything filled with water yesterday for the leak test and turned on the pump and my wife was pretty quick to say that she wasnt happy about the noise that the pump made.

Anyways, I am looking for a new comparible return pump. I have been reading about the Jebao pumps and am not a fan of having the british plumbing threads and having to try and find a way to convert to NPT so I started to check out the Tunze 1073.050. I have read that they are quiet and am sure they are, but where I am having trouble is finding a pump that is somewhat comparible to the output of the Noisy One 4000 and will work with my current plumbing without to many modifications or a new return line. i would like a 3/4 NPT return threading if possible.

Does the Tunze have an NPT output or am I stuck with the barb fitting and making it work with my PVC return line?

Any opinions are welcome. The pump must be submersible since I dont have room in the stand for an external pump.

 

[sleepydoc]

I got a Fluvial SP4 and am very happy with it. Getting about 1200 GPH at 6' head. Virtually silent, just a very faint hum.

I thought about a DC pump and actually ordered a Deepwater BLDC pump that I returned because of the British plumbing issues you mentioned. It sounds like some of them have issues with the controllers as well. The Royal Exclusive pumps are nice and supposedly bulletproof, I just wasn't ready to shell out that much money for one. Jebao and Wavelike seem to have supply issues as well since most places were consistently out of their pumps when I was looking.

 

[sleepydoc]

Double post

 

[billyzbear]

Laguna pumps are nice too. I have a 2400, quiet and they run forever. I can't remember if fluvial uses laguna pumps or the other way around.

 

[sleepydoc]

They both use the askoll motor block

 

[KingTriton1]

Tunze 1073.05 is my choice and it's pretty quite, but if silence is your main objective then I'd probably go with the fluval Sp4 or Eheim. Also recommend silicone tubing on the return and rubber pad for under the Eheim.

 

[lastpikd]

Thanks for the input. My tank is only 60 (36x18x24 I beleive) gallons, would the sp4 be to much? I have a 1" drain and it is throttled back so it doesn't take in air with the siphon. My return line is 1" and has a T with a gate valve to reduce flow without back pressure; this is turned all the way off right now with the current pump. Do you guys think the sp2 would be better? It is more along the lines of what I have right now but I wouldn't mind a little more turn over without throttling back the drain. What do you guys think?

 

[sleepydoc]

Yeah, for a 60 gal tank the sp2 would probably be better. You can figure out the head loss of your return plumbing to estimate what the actual flow would be, but the SP4 would probably be overkill. You could dial it back with a valve, but there's no point in wasting money and energy on more pump than you need.

 

[azjohnny]

+1 with Laguna and Fluval Seas, I use both

 

[infusionluke]

I use two diablo DC 10500 and love them. They are virtually silent. One of the power supplies did fail after about a year, but after contacting the supplier they sent me a entire new pump with a power supply. So now I have a spare controller and pump!

 

[lastpikd]

Thanks again for the input. Ordered the fluval sp2 on Sunday evening and got it yesterday. Installed it and it's whisper quiet. Wife was happy with the barely noticeable hum and asked if the pump was even on. I hooked up the mp40qd just to see how much noise we were gonna have in the living room. I'm proud to say that the light trickle of the overflow is the loudest audible noise of the build.

 

[sleepydoc]

:thumbsup: