Got my new tank mostly set up but running into a heat generation issue. Same as with my last setup, which was using the same pump, although that had an additional smaller pump and other heat sources so I assumed it would go down a bit.
Anyway, I'm currently running a mag drive 9.5 which is a bit too powerful, forcing me to use a valve (not sure what you'd call these again, a cutoff valve?) at like 50% to staunch the flow a bit. (see pic) I'm pretty sure this is making the pump generate extra heat as it struggles against the resistance, plus it is not a very efficient pump to begin with.
Money isn't the primary concern, although googling around the best looking option is $700 from Royal Exclusiv Red Dragon (
http://royalexclusiv.com/Flow-Pumps...agon-3-Mini-Speedy-50-Watt-1-321-gph::56.html).
If there's something cheaper that would do the job well and not generate so much heat I'd love to know. The nice thing about the red dragon is that it's adjustable, so I can turn down the RPMs to where I want it and hopefully not have to use the valve. A bit confused about its power requirements (via US outlets) though.
Any suggestions welcome, please! Don't wanna have to keep the top of this thing open all the time for heat exchange!
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Also here's a quick pic of what I've got going on so far:
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