High Tide Aquatics

Suction Pump

Nav

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I'm looking for a pump that I can use externally to siphon water out of my sump... The sump sits 2" above ground level but manual siphon takes ages and is so slow that it doesn't suck detritus!

I saw Roberto (@newhobby) using a tiny ebay pump and connected it to one end of a PVC that he uses like a wand in his sump, messaged but didn't get any info yet.

If you know of any tiny pump that I can attach to one end of a PVC or even better if its external that I can just connect long tubes to both intake and outflow and simply start the pump to suck the water out (I guess these are called wet/dry pumps?)
 
A friend of mine gave me a "Super Battery Vac Aquarium Vacuum Cleaner" a while back. I haven't tried it in my tank yet, if you want to give it a try in your sump before buying such a device, I can borrow it to you. I'm in San Jose.
 
I use a small mj1200 pump connected to a hose.

I put the pump in my sump and move it with my hand to pump out detritus into a 5 gallon bucket.


I use to use a Home Depot Buckethead pump to clean but recently learned the mj1200 is much better. The buckethead sucks water out too fast!!!

With the mj1200 i can target the detritus build up.
 
+1 for MJ1200.

When I turn off my return pump, my sump fills with 25-30 gallons. I throw an MJ1200 on the end of a tube and throw the pump inside my filter sock. Then I turn it on and pump tank water in to a container marked off at 25 gallons. I feel more comfortable pumping water out of the sump through the filter sock so the copepods and amphipods stay in the sump.

Once the wastewater container is full, I move the MJ1200 into the Brute w/ 25 gallons of fresh saltwater and pump that into the sump. Takes about 30 minutes to get all the water out and back in.

Once the system is up and running with the right water level, I pump the wastewater down the drain through the toilet. If something goes wrong, you can always pump some of the water back into the tank.

The MJ1200 seems like the best compromise of small size and highest flow for doing utility work like this.
 
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The best tool for the job would be a "diaphragm pump" they are typically DC powered, they run externally and are self priming.
You can find them on ebay for less than $20 and they come in all sorts of flow rates.
 
The best tool for the job would be a "diaphragm pump" they are typically DC powered, they run externally and are self priming.
You can find them on ebay for less than $20 and they come in all sorts of flow rates.
They look very mechanical. Have you tried them? Also the intake/outflow holes are so tiny, looks a bit bigger than airline tubing?
 
yeah they're more pressure pumps rather than high-flow, they'll pump water up to your roof haha
so whenever you have that type of thing it's typically smaller sized tubing. I like them for ATO since the pump can sit outside the container & only hose goes in.
 
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