laguna maxflo

[bbortko]

I've been seeing a lot of you swear by them so I gave them a look and have a couple questions.

1. Do you use the cage? Manual says not to run without but this is the clean part of a sump and not a pond so I'm not sure it's needed.

2. How big are the cages?

 

[ElectricBlueSeanBurch]

I run mine without the cage. I have a tetra pond box attached to the intake and have the output hard plumbed. Cage is pretty big and awkward...

 

[duanes]

I have 3, I run 1 in a pond with cage, and 2 in sumps.
One in a 40 breeder sump, and one in a 50 gal sump sitting in the cage, but the cage is not secure. The 50gal is a bit tight between the tank above, and with all the PVC was hard to get in together in one piece.
The cage is really great for keeping debris, fish and snails out of the pump, and I haven't had to do as many pump cleanings as with the Mag Drives.

 

[bbortko]

If my upgrade plans go through I want to do a 24" long external overflow with a 75g sump. I'm thinking the center 24" of the sump will be filter socks in the rear with water flowing into the bio like a wet/dry then flowing to each side and each end will have a pump. This set up leaves 6-7" of clearance above the tank and a 10-12"x18" section in the tank. I think the 1500 will work but haven't done the math other than in my head to be sure but if you guys feel it will physically fit into this setup I'll keep it in the maybe pile.

 

[David R]

I've never run one with the cage yet. They are designed as pond pumps and capable of "solids handling" up to a certain size, so basically the cage is for when they're sitting in the bottom of a grubby pond sucking in all sorts of crud to prevent anything too big getting sucked in. If you're getting coarse particles big enough to cause damage to the pump in the last chamber of your sump you're doing something wrong!!