Experience with Pondmaster Mag Drive Pump

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Jack Dempsey
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Apr 14, 2013
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I am looking for input from people that have had experience with the Danner Pondmaster Mag Drive 1800 pumps? I am doing my first sump and do not have much external room for an external pump. It is possible I might be able to make an external pump work but without having plumbed one before the space I have from what I can tell doesn't give me any room for error and I wouldn't want to buy a pump and end up not being able to make it fit. So the submersible would definitely make my situation easier. But I have a couple questions.

I am worried about the heat the pump could put into the water being submersed in the sump. I will have around 160-170 gallons of water total with tank and sump. I do not live anyplace crazy hot but where I do live we do not have central air conditioning. Just window air conditioners that we turn on after we get home from work in the evening. So during the summer our house temps are usually around 75-80 degrees until we get home and then cool it down to about 73. During the winter our house stays pretty constant at 72-74. Currently I keep the tank at 81.5-82 degrees with a 300 watt heater.

So do you think that the Danner Pondmaster Mag Drive 1800 will put too much heat into my water causing my temps to go over the 82 degrees or do you think it would work??? Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.
 

duanes

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I have an 1800 running a few tanks from 1 sump, works well, been using it over a decade, and just recently replaced the impeller (not bad for 24/7 use almost 10 years).
It does heat the water a bit, but if you are already using a heater or 2, you may be able to shut one down, at least part of the year.
I find the pond masters do vibrate a bit, so I set it on a large aquarium filter sponge.
Another plus of the Mag Drives, is a threaded out put, I like to use a threaded PVC union to make maintenance easy.

 

sabmakj21

Jack Dempsey
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Jan 2, 2014
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I don't have an 1800 but only a 700 and 500, but never had a problem with excess heat. Water constantly moves through your sump so i would think that would only help disperse any heat build up. Also too, if your heater has a thermostat, it would shut off if the heat hits that 82.

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Jack Dempsey
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Apr 14, 2013
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Thanks for the input. I do only have one 300 watt heater right now and it really doesn't come on very much that is what my concern is now. If what I have doesn't need to run very often right now will adding that submersible pump put me over my temp range even if I don't run a heater? Maybe I am just being paranoid. But I hate spending a couple hundred bucks only to find out it doesn't work. I have made that mistake before with other stuff.

Duanes how many gallons combined are the tanks you feed with that pump? And do you also use a heater? And what temp do you keep your water?
 

mike_sema

Hail Hogs
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Jul 13, 2008
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I have a mag24,18,12,9 love everyone of them they have never failed me. I live in AZ and do not have heating issues, all of these pumps have paid for themselves twice over. The only issues I see now days with these pumps is they cost more to run then a lot of the newer stuff.


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DEVIANT NATION

Jack Dempsey
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Apr 14, 2013
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I have a mag24,18,12,9 love everyone of them they have never failed me. I live in AZ and do not have heating issues, all of these pumps have paid for themselves twice over. The only issues I see now days with these pumps is they cost more to run then a lot of the newer stuff.

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AZ with no heating issues, that is a good thing. I had a brother I helped move from there when it was 114 degrees, swore I wasn't going back after that I don't like that much heat. LOL!


If you don't mind what do you keep the ambient air temp where you keep your tanks and what temp do you keep the water?
 

MilitantPotato

Candiru
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Jul 19, 2006
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I'm guessing you've somewhat strong lights? With a 180 gallon tank, and 30 gallons in the sump my tank runs at 81F with a room temperature of 76-78. That's with two 9.5s submerged, and ~200 watts of lighting. (I run a fan on the lights to keep the tank temperature down.)
Adding a fan to remove lighting heat, and maybe to evaporate some water you'll not have any heat issues.
 

mike_sema

Hail Hogs
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AZ with no heating issues, that is a good thing. I had a brother I helped move from there when it was 114 degrees, swore I wasn't going back after that I don't like that much heat. LOL!


If you don't mind what do you keep the ambient air temp where you keep your tanks and what temp do you keep the water?
Fish room ambient Temps 78 year round, normal tank Temps sit around 80.

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