Little Giant pump

mathchris

mathchris

AC Members
Aug 18, 2005
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Brooklyn NY
www.chrisramey.com
I just purchased a 65 gallon used custom aquarium with a hard plumbed glass 20 gallon wet/dry filter. I'm doing a freshwater planted tank with it.

My question is about the pump that came with it...

Little Giant 113watt pump: I can't seem to find the ratings on this particular model but a comparable one is listed at 800 Gallons per hour. That sounds insane to me. I assume this tank was made for a reef but will this water flow make this tank like a river? And if so, would my fish dig it? If not, can I just partially close a valve to limit flow or do I need to get a smaller pump? There's well over 5 gallons of bioball media.

I should maintenance this pump too before I install it. How do I clean & oil it?
 
Have you turned the pump on yet? In my experience little giant pumps are very loud. Loud enough that I would definatly consider replacing it with a different brand of pump.

800gph is probably at 0 head. Figure with the height of the tank, the various plumbing bends and what not, that its probably more like 500gph. Still pretty significant water movement for a freshwater tank, but nothing that cant be dealt with. It could make for a nice river setup if you want, but otherwise I would suggest replacing with a smaller (quieter!) pump.

Now I dont know how your setup is plumbed, so that will determine wether you need an external or internal pump. Little giants are external pumps, but that does not mean you couldnt use an internal pump. But look into pumps like eheims or mag drive pumps. You can get those in relatively low flow rates, which would be fine for a planted tank.
 
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Loud is very bad. Haven't tried it yet because it says not to run it without water. I could easily plug the sump's bulkhead & do an underwater pump. That would eliminate some of the complexity of the setup & I would guess noise too. Thanks, I will heavily consider.

Can anyone recommend a good target flowrate for a 65 gallon planted freshwater tank with a wet/dry filter that has over 5 gallons of bio-ball media?

On the subject of loud, the enclosed wooden stand has an open back. I thought about plywooding it shut to reduce noise. Is there a reson to leave it open (moisture/mold?)?
 
You could enclose the back, but I would leave some air holes in the stand to prevent mold/mildew. In fact, if you could, rig up a computer fan or two in the stand to get some air circulation.

As far as turnover is concerned, something like 3x the tank volume per hour (200gph or so)would likely be fine. But make sure that the pump does 200gph at whatever head height it needs. Perhaps at 5 ft of head or whatever.
 
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