Mag 18 for 211 gallon

[peterlin98]

Hi all,
I'm looking for your experience with Mag 18, or other similar submersible pump. Assume heat is not an issue, would you pick Mag 18 over Dophin Tank Master? I also read that Sedra 20000 (2000 gph) is a good choice. I ruled out Quiet One because it does not push out as much water compared to Mag 18.

So - which is the pump to pick if I'm looking for a reliable pump which is quiet, and produce good output (with about 6 ft head pressure)?

Thanks,
Peter

[dattack]

When you get into the big tanks such as yours, I would look into using a big external pump. Good choices are the Sequence pump and Ampmaster. I had a Mag18 running a skimmer and that fail on my within a year.

[Qdoggie]

tag

[cuongvynguyen]

pumps are prone to calcium build up. I thought one of my mags were broken. Took it apart cleaned it in vinegar and it worked.

[Steven Pro]

I have been very happy with Mag-Drive pumps. I have two mounted externally on my 120, one 700 external on an aquatic turtle tank, a 500 I use for mixing saltwater and pumping into my various tanks, and a multitude of others that I have installed and maintain on customer's tanks. I have always found them to be reliable and they are so inexpensive that they are hard to pass up. If heat or noise is an issue, though, I use Iwaki's.

[peterlin98]

I had considered external pump. But for the ease of plumbing - I want to use a submersible pump. I'm not looking for the main pump to provide all of the required flow to keep a reef/sps tank. For example, my 150 gallon uses 2 Mag-12 pump and 2 Turbell 6100 pump.

This 211 gallon - I'm thinking maybe a Mag-12 or Mag-18 might work (3-4 times water turn over). In addition to the main pump that I'm debating, I'm using 3 Max-Jet 1200 on red sea wavemaster pro, and a Gemini (~900 gph) in a closed loop to 1 inch sea swirl. If needed I can add a Turbell 6100.

My requirement is the main pump is quiet, energy efficient, handle head pressure up to 6 feet.

There used to be a website I found that compare different types of pumps (both external and internal), watt used. Most website does not list specification on input (w) of external pumps. I could not find that site again to validate if external pump uses more watt than comparable internal pump. For exampe - A Mag-18 produces 1800 gph max, uses 145 watts. This is compared to a Blueline 100HD external pump 1900 gph max, and it uses 390 watts. Mag-18 is less expensive than Blueline. My main reason to consider an external pump is head pressure.

This decision is driving me mad. I've been thinking about this for a week now. If I opt for an external pump, there is no going back once I drill a hole for bulk head in my custom sump.


thank you,
Peter

[dattack]

http://reefs.org/library/pumps/