Waveline DC Needle Wheel Pumps on an Alpha 300??

[slief]

I know this might be a silly question. I have an Alpha 300 which I love but I hate messing with the volutes even though I rarely ever have to. I've had Red Dragon 3 controllable pumps on my mind for a while now but their price makes them impractical on an Alpha and also, since the Alpha has 2 pumps, it creates another issue as I wouldn't want to buy a smaller slave pump.

After looking at the RLSS skimmers which appear to be BK knock offs with Waveline DC pumps, it got me thinking. How would a pair of Waveline 5000 DC needle wheel pumps work on an Alpha?? The fact that they are "cheaper" and controllable makes it worth considering for a science project. Of course aside from whether they would drive the Alpha well, my biggest concern would be longevity but at their price, 2-3 years might be acceptable between failures and a dead AC Adapter would be the least of my concerns as those are cheap.

So, the question is, how would they work on an Alpha 300 compared to the Red Dragon 1500's? Would the added controllability of the Waveline 5000 create a better working skimmer or at least a comparable working one with the added benifit of variable speed? Would the DC5000 even be the best model for this endeavor?

 

[Jeremy B.]

I would think they will work just fine on that skimmer. Having said that, I have not idea if they would work better, worse, the overall durability out of them, etc., as they're just way too new.

 

[slief]

I would think they will work just fine on that skimmer. Having said that, I have not idea if they would work better, worse, the overall durability out of them, etc., as they're just way too new.

Thanks Jeremy. I appreciate the response. I know it may be a bird brained idea as the Red Dragons are probably one of the best pumps out there. I just like the idea of the controllability of the DC pumps as opposed to adjusting volutes on the red dragons.

If I were to do this experiment, would the Waveline 5000 skimmer pump be comparable to the red dragons on my Alpha 300? Would I be better off waiting for one the new Wavelines that are just hitting the market or would there be a better set of controllable pumps to consider?

 

[Jeremy B.]

The 5000 is what you would want to go with. Another option is the new RD3 Speedy pump, but that's not going to be cheap by any means. The new Wavelines will really be nothing more than having a 0-10v input on them to ramp them up and down by your own controller, such as an Apex.