Weighing Up External Sump Pumps

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
The latest is the MD-55R-5 needs a special order from Japan, and could take months. But they have got a MD-70R and are giving me virtually the same price.

Think I have got the pump sorted, but the building of the tank itself has stalled.
 
Reeflo pumps. Quiet, powerful, energy efficient work horses. I bought a spare Reeflo Hammerhead pump 16 years ago. It is still in its box. The original one has been running 24/7 for 16 years. They are now mostly available as hybrid Hammerhead/Barracuda pumps. From my experience, I only considered Reeflo pumps for my big system which still isn't set up...two Hammerheads, two Barracuda Golds, one Tarpon.
 
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I have no Iwaki experience, but I will highly recommend Ecotech Vectra M1. The M1 has been a great pump, powerful, and is super quiet. Mine is external, but you can submerge it in a sump. The only downside is that it does warm up the water a few degrees. It's a workhorse pump, and it's "dimmable" so you can dial your own speed. The impeller and the in/out volutes are structurally robust and really well built. The impeller shaft is ceramic, not soft steel. The in/out attachments are threaded, not hose sleeves. No more fragile Eheim pumps for me (Eheim volutes all cracked).
 
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I have read about Reeflo and Vectra. They are not available here.

Arrived today, one Iwaki:
iw2.jpg

The pump came quickly. The construction of the 3000 litre has stalled temporarily.

So for the time being, I cannot view beautiful fish, I will have to stare and a green pump instead.
 
A few months later, and my 3000 litre has been up and running only for a few weeks. Here is the latest with the pumps.

I have two pumps attached externally. The Iwaki MD-70R and a Jebao ACQ 12000.

The Jebao was so much cheaper, $96 delivered. I got the ACQ which is an AC pump rather than a DC pump for a few reason. I am using it externally, so the safety of a DC pump is irrelevant (I live in a hot environment, so I do not need any more heat in the water). I have heard that with similar pumps, AC pumps have a greater head. Also, the AC pump was even cheaper than the DC pumps. To give it its due, the Jebao pump does actually move a lot of water. It seemed pretty good.

However, the Jebao is the backup pump, and the Iwaki of course is the primary pump.

A couple of weeks ago, there was some leakage apparently from the Iwaki. This happened on two occasions. I removed the pump tested it and could find no problem with it. But last week I did send it back to the Iwaki dealer to test. And so left the Jebao running as the backup.

The Iwaki agent was pretty good. Tested the pump and found the cause. I had been using stainless steel fitting threaded directly onto the front casing. The agent suggested I use plastic fittings, as metal on plastic - even with what seems enough PTFE tape - inevitably loosens with the vibration. Plastic, which has some give, is possible to be tightened more.

Yesterday I received the Iwaki, and had already got the necessary PVC fittings. The threaded PVC check valve was not good so I could not put the Iwaki in yesterday. It had to wait till this morning when I could get a new PVC check valve.

Incidentally, and highly luckily, three days ago, I met someone who had bought a Jebao ACQ 12000, the same pump as my backup, but it was much too powerful for his tank. He sold it to me for $55.

Last night, about 4am, there was a two second power cut. Nothing generally to worry about. I came downstairs at 6am, and the water was not moving. The Jebao had appeared to die. The tank and fish was alright, as the constant drip helps a lot. Good bloody thing I had another of the same model of Jebao. It turns out that in the two second power cut, the Jebao power supply failed. The pump itself is still good. I merely switched the power supply from the one I got three days ago.

It took me a few hours to get a new PVC check valve and install the Iwaki.

Looking at the surface agitation and the drop in level in the Herbie, the Iwaki really is quite a lot more powerful. And hopefully will last and be reliable.

Cheap Jebao products might seem good, but I will never rely on them. I have still got it installed as the backup, and that is probably all it is worth. I have looked around but cannot find a replacement AC power supply for my model.
 
My experience with ACQ Jaebo 10,000 pumps is similar to yours. Alternating Current not DC - 12 volt. I would buy 6 pumps per carton at a time and they work quietly and well until the power is turned off. Some just wouldn’t restart. It's a random chance to the point I added bypass taps so I could clean filters without having to turn them off. Cheap enough that a year of use is fine but it's false economy longer term and bad for the environment. I've started switching to Laguna pumps as the Jaebos fail but I've got several cartons left. You definitely need to keep spare pumps on hand.

I suspect Jaebo is getting copied and/or false badged by inferior companies as one early batch has been great but I've no proof.

As you are using check valves, have you considered 2 Jaebo pumps in tandem (parallel) arrangement to reduce total failure risk?

I've used dual pumps (in series, not tandam) to boost total head height as this is much cheaper to buy and run than one big pump but I dislike check valves so never in tandam for me. Tandam is much simpler though This link explains. https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/pumps-parallel-serial-d_636.html
 
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The Jabao will not get much use now. It is merely the backup pump, and so should not be used at all. But if it does fail, I will get an Eheim. I have got an Eheim Compacton on another tank. It is incredibly small for its power and works well.

I think the combo of Iwaki as prime and Eheim as backup could be hard to beat.

I do have a check valve on the Iwaki, but not on the Jebao.

I am not too worried about head. In all, with a few twists, it is about two metres. The Iwaki handles it really well. In general, Iwaki has high head and low head pumps. But has one or two models including mine (just for the 50Hz market) that are great for middle head.
 
I was going to recommend reeflo as well.

If you want the absolute best abyzz pumps but they come with a fat price.
 
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