Large flow water pumps 45.000 lph ?

[waynesworld]

Hi all. After a long time in the wait this is the chance to build my ultimate tank. I am in the process of working out the running cost ( for my accountant SWMBO ) and i have worked out the water bill. Now its the electric.. First off the water pumps as these will be running continuously. Then ill work on the power heads.

I am looking at inline or external water pumps. I need a flow rate of 36,000lph - 45,000lph for 4500l tank. It will need three or four pumps so each pump, lets go for four pumps at 10,000lph.

Can anybody suggest a good pump to look at that can cope with this capacity please.

Faffer

 

[MattW]

I have no idea about the equipment needed for tanks that large! But I've found these two sites have a decent selection of pumps.

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@simonas is someone who has large tanks and will know more than me
(sorry for the tag again)

 

[anewbie]

You want a dc pump like jebo dcp-10000 or dcp-13000; at max flow (they can be adjusted) they will use around 95 watts so 400 watts for the pump. How large is your dream aquarium - my largest is only 600 gallon.

These pumps are relatively inexpensive and fairly reliable as a lot of salt water folks use them - the difference between these $120 pumps and the more expensive $2000 models is the more expensive models have longer warranty and titanium blades.

 

[waynesworld]

@MattW yes just looked on them, there ar a few more choices than when i was planning this tank, some time ago. So many more makes to choose fro, i dont want to be buying some rubbish on this kind of project.

I have found a few pumps to look at for a pric up. The variable will be best i think as the fixed rate pumps around 12000lph are 85w but the variable can go down to 35w with the same flow rate.

these 20,000 lph are ones i have specs on of power needed. A lot more in layout cost but i `guess` the other variable pumps cant be far different. just no specs on line for te power consumption.

PondXpert VariFlow 10000 20000 30000 Variable Flow Controllable Pond Pump Koi | eBay UK

Variflow 10,000. Variflow 20,000. Variflow 30,000. The first 'value-priced' variable flow filter pump. Max Flow Rate (lph): 30000. - Pump can be run 'low' at winter - ticking over at just 15 watts. Max flow 9200 Litres per hour.

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@anewbie

It will be 1200 gallon ( UK ) or 4500 litres. plus a1000 litre sump. It a L shape, 11 foot down the rear of the long sides and 3 foot wide x 3 high. roughly.

 

[waynesworld]

well this has put a stop on this as the heating alone will be £450 a month if my maths is correct.

I have worked out the pump and power head, lighting running cost, not the heater side of it, and as it goes this is going to be the killer is i have worked it correct.
It will be fully insulated all around with 50mm polyurethane foam. but for the two viewing sides as its a L shape.

Dimension would be 11 foot along the long rear sides, so around 8 foot front viewing sides, and 3 foot x 3 foot. around 4500l litres or 1200 gallon ( UK )

Heaters will need to be 6000kw, does that sound about right, on for around 10hrs day.

That means £450 a month to heat it. electric is .25p a KW .

m maths is .25p x 6 ( 6kw ) = £1.50 x 10hrs = £15 for 10hrs

£15 a day for 30 days £450 a month to heat the tank.

If its that ill keep cold water fish instead haha

 

[Aiken Drum]

1 watt/ litre is normally sufficient unless your aquarium is outside in the cold. I'd be surprised if they operated more than 5 minutes in every hour. So thats going to be a couple of hours a day of actually operating.

If you are heating large volumes of water though, it's more efficient to heat the room rather than heat the aquarium.

 

[anewbie]

well this has put a stop on this as the heating alone will be £450 a month if my maths is correct.

I have worked out the pump and power head, lighting running cost, not the heater side of it, and as it goes this is going to be the killer is i have worked it correct.
It will be fully insulated all around with 50mm polyurethane foam. but for the two viewing sides as its a L shape.

Dimension would be 11 foot along the long rear sides, so around 8 foot front viewing sides, and 3 foot x 3 foot. around 4500l litres or 1200 gallon ( UK )

Heaters will need to be 6000kw, does that sound about right, on for around 10hrs day.

That means £450 a month to heat it. electric is .25p a KW .

m maths is .25p x 6 ( 6kw ) = £1.50 x 10hrs = £15 for 10hrs

£15 a day for 30 days £450 a month to heat the tank.

If its that ill keep cold water fish instead haha

First the actual heating cost depends on tank temp vs room temp so we can't possibly answer this question without that information. 2nd what some folks have done over at monster tank forums is use gas heater and run the hot water pipe through the sump recyling and found it was 1/? (I think vaguely 30th) the cost as using little electric eating elements. You will have to do a bit of searching to find the actual design and then see if you can do something similar - but this was for salt water 'hot' fishes. If you were for example have central american fishes that run around 70 and your room temp is 68 ....

 

[waynesworld]

I am thinking on wet under floor heating and wrapping it around the tank and ran of its own boiler. although the house boiler is next to the fish room. I am on MFK now researching.

 

[AJ356]

Sounds good. My main advice is not about the pump, but about the accountant. If needed, shop around for the best one / wife / partner. Put this hobby first, always

 

[waynesworld]

Sounds good. My main advice is not about the pump, but about the accountant. If needed, shop around for the best one / wife / partner. Put this hobby first, always

The things i have lots of hobbies and they all come first. I am unsure when her patience will run out lol.

 

[GaryE]

My first thought when I saw your subject and you location was heating costs. It's one thing to buy the large system - a considerable cost. But running it day to day adds up.
I don't have a big tank (above 450ltr/120 gall), but have a lot of tanks, which add up. One avenue you might want to explore before technology is biology.
Advice about tank temperatures for most tropicals has been warming up faster than the planet has. There are exceptions like Discus, but most of our fish are now kept too warm. I've been in the hobby for fifty plus years, and have enjoyed breeding difficult species for more than thirty. I'm no fish killing newbie. I've also been a serious reader about fish, habitats and aquariums since I was a kid.
I see suggested temperatures climbing every decade, to the point where in many cases, they are beyond what the fish experiences in nature. Most fish have minimum and maximum temperature ranges, and the hobby seems to have forgotten the middle range and decided to stretch the upper. So, you haven't discussed what goes into this behemoth of a tank.
I run 90% of my tanks heated by the room, which sits around 20c. I have a wide array of species, although I do look at natural temperature ranges when I make my choices. Knowledge is power(bills).

The tech is just to enable the biology.

 

[anewbie]

That reminds me another way to heat the tank is to keep the room at the temperature you desire the aquarium - of course you not mentioned your target aquarium temperature nor room temperature (which often depends on one exact location).

 

[simonas]

Thats much bigger than mine I think mine ends up about 2500 litres on one tank and for that I use a 20k lph pump which in reality is far too powerful for the tank and runs at about 60% with loads of flow. When turned up to max its like a tsunami. Evolution aqua 20000 it is my tanks 9ft long and my arowana etc loves high flow so I dont think you will need as powerful a pump as you think
I use titanium bars and have in my 9 ft 1200w of heater and 900w in my 6ft tank. Big tanks heated to 28 and my discus tank 6ft to 29. Theyre in the garage and I also have numerous wave makers, large UV countless lights on the tanks etc and 3 large pond pumps for k1 beds as well as a 5 bed house and our electricty it £540 a month if that helps

 

[anewbie]

It has been asked a couple of time but of course in your calculation you have to consider your target temp as well as your climate. It occurred to me that if you have harder water you might be better off with a central american stocking which is not only advantage to harderwater but they they lean towards cooler temperature.

In my case (i live in a warm climate in usa); while my single large aquarium is smaller than yours my total water volume is quite a bit larger at close to 2000 gallons; my single largest cost is actually water due to many of my aquariums blackwater nature (i use 3500 gallon of ro water a month which is 7000 gallons due to 1:1); heating cost is not too bad since most of my aquarium are near 78 which is room temperature during the summer months - winter is a bit cooler around 68-70 depending on outside temp but we have long summers and short winters - pumps use a bit though having one large air-pump for all the small aquariums is pretty cheap. With a central american aquarium your target water temp would be in low to mid 70s with some fishes preferring higher 60s this is of course a different dynamic than discus at 84 or 86 so stocking makes a big different in your calculations.

 

[Magnum Man]

I agree with @GaryE ... I've noticed that many fish are ok with cooler temps, I have a long fin green dragon pleco, and a large shoal of Cory's thriving at near 70 degrees F.

I wonder if the worry of Ich. has people recommending warmer temps??? but I have started working the heater set points down a degree or two at a time, with no ill effects... of coarse there will be a point, at which the fish will suffer, but seems like the recommended temps are higher than most fish actually need...