# my pump died, no reason



## booba5 (May 3, 2008)

k so i made a thread before and got no responses, so i dunno if what i did before was the best thing to do or not. My 75 gallon has a built in overflow, and i have a magnum 350 connected to it, then the return is through the bottom of the tank. I have (had) a 258 GPH pump that i had put in the bottom of the overflow, then i filled the overflow with lava rock and put about 2 inches of filter floss on it. Everything ran fantastic for like a month, then i came home last night to a scene everyone hates to see, all my fish floating at the top gasping for air. even my dragon catfish (it's the most i've seen him in months), and my rubber lips plecos were WHITE, which was actually cool looking lol. Anyways, the 258 GPH pump decided that it didn't like my tank and died. I'm curious if it was just faulty and died or if it was my set up that caused it to die. I would love to set up a sump, and have my magnum 350 as a polisher and carbon from time to time, but my stand just has no room for it ( that annoying petsmart stand that has doors on each side? yes. thats the one. There's no room for even a 10 gallon, so i'm pretty hosed. any ideas?


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## booba5 (May 3, 2008)

Not sure if this is a good idea or if anyone will respond....but i have a pump i used to use in my pond that moves 3300 gph and is 1hp. i'm going to set up a 55G in the future and maybe i could build a sump for both tanks? 3300gph (i wanna say @10foot lift but i cant remember what the box said) would prolly be a litte much for those 2 tanks? the pump has to be sumerged, and it wont exactly fit in my over flow (lol) so a sump would be the only option right?


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## como1103 (Feb 3, 2008)

if it really that bad for fish to be without a pump for a few hours? i see stories all the time like this where all of a sudden the pump dies, and all of the fish do soon after. i would think they could atleast last a day or 2 with no pump???


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## booba5 (May 3, 2008)

i doubt it highly, i mean, i was gone for at most ten hours (that's if it died the second i left for work. my fish weren't dead, but a couple of them were stuck to the overflow and everyone was at the top gasping.


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## IrkedCitizen (Apr 26, 2007)

booba5 said:


> ...I would love to set up a sump, and have my magnum 350 as a polisher and carbon from time to time, but my stand just has no room for it ( that annoying petsmart stand that has doors on each side? yes. thats the one. There's no room for even a 10 gallon, so i'm pretty hosed. any ideas?


Your sump doesn't have to be under the stand you can always place it next to the tank, or in an adjacent closet/bedroom, or in the room below the tank. This will make it possible to use a bigger container as your sump thus giving you more stable water parameters. I however do not like running more than one tank on a sump because if one tank on your system gets infected with some kind of disease then you have to treat/medicate the whole system and that can get expensive pretty quick.

If you put the sump in the room below you want to go through the wall and not through the floor. It's easier to patch drywall.



booba5 said:


> Not sure if this is a good idea or if anyone will respond....but i have a pump i used to use in my pond that moves 3300 gph and is 1hp. i'm going to set up a 55G in the future and maybe i could build a sump for both tanks? 3300gph (i wanna say @10foot lift but i cant remember what the box said) would prolly be a litte much for those 2 tanks? the pump has to be sumerged, and it wont exactly fit in my over flow (lol) so a sump would be the only option right?


What make and model is the pump? 3300gph at 10 feet of head is a bit overkill. That means it would flow way more at aquarium tank height. But if you put the sump in the room below then that might actually work out to your advantage.



como1103 said:


> if it really that bad for fish to be without a pump for a few hours? i see stories all the time like this where all of a sudden the pump dies, and all of the fish do soon after. i would think they could atleast last a day or 2 with no pump???


If your pump dies and there is nothing else to create surface agitation then the gases will increase in the tank thus making the fish suffocate. This is especially true if your tank is overstocked.


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## booba5 (May 3, 2008)

I live in AZ so no basement to put the sump in, and both common walls are outside (converted the carport to a bar room) What do you think about the way i had it set up before? with the pump buried in lava rocks with filter floss on top? I realy doubt that the pump died from the rocks, when i took it out there was no rocks or small particles in the impeller, or anything else for that matter, it's just literaly dead.


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## IrkedCitizen (Apr 26, 2007)

It could be that it just died. That happens. I had an aquaclear 802 powerhead die after two weeks. It almost cooked my fish the temperature was up to 88 degrees when I noticed it.

Take some pictures of your stand. The vertical boards between the doors and on the back can usually be unscrewed so you can place a wet/dry sump inside and then put the board back in and screw it in place.

Did you find out the make and model of that pond pump?


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## booba5 (May 3, 2008)

the one that was already in the tank was a harbor freight special that was 258 GPH, the pump i had in my pond is also a harbor freight special i read the box again, but it didn't really help, max is 3300 gph and max lift is 25ft thats about all it said...


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## remarkosmoc (Oct 19, 2005)

booba5 said:


> the one that was already in the tank was a harbor freight special


I think we just isolated the cause of failure


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## booba5 (May 3, 2008)

Yea, i've had them before on my pond and such and everything was great....even in the Phoenix sun...did i say pond? I meant algae farm. Anyways, i think what i'm going to do is just get this one replaced (i still have the box, etc.) and then instead of having it run my spray bar, i'll leave my magnum 350 for that, and run this pump into the return in the bottom, center of the tank. My thinking behind this is that the harbor freight pump wont really be running anything as crucial as a spray bar, where if it dies, so can my fish. It'll just run some current in the bottom\middle of the tank...still important, but not deadly to my fish if it goes out.


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## booba5 (May 3, 2008)

Well I replaced the pump, and kept my idea with using my over flow as a filter, I did swap the outouts of the two filters tho. I now have the 258 GPH running into the bottom of the tank for cleaning the substrate and just current in general, and have the Magnum 350 running the spray bar, which i changed the floss on and it moves a nice bit of water now too. Main reason i did this was so the more reliable pump was giving the fish oxygen. I also moved my powerhead up to the top, it's only 170GPH, but every little bit helps, and should the magnum go out, it'll at least help with surface agitation. Anyways, pics:
The top of my overflow, i ran out of good hose, so i had to use the stuff that kinked easy, zip ties to the rescue:








Powerhead agitation:








Spraybar, ziptie is just to help the hose seal:








Side shot so you can see the water movement:








Magnum 350, I have the carbon basket filled with the green pot scrubbing sponges, then floss around that, but this is the second time the water gets filtered, since it went through the overflow:








Tank Shot:


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## booba5 (May 3, 2008)

comments anyone?


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## IrkedCitizen (Apr 26, 2007)

booba5 said:


> comments anyone?


As long as it works that's all that matters.


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## booba5 (May 3, 2008)

lol, it works, but i dunno if i could have a more efficient set up, or how long will it work lol, maybe i'm missing something that could cause my setup to crash.....again.


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## IrkedCitizen (Apr 26, 2007)

Me personally I would still try and setup a wet/dry sump. Once you have used one you will never want another tank without one.


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## booba5 (May 3, 2008)

i would love too i really would lol, this stand is already not built as strong as i would like it, so when i move later this year I'm gonna build another stand where i can use my 30 gallon in it. I'll prolly use my magnum 350 in my 55 gallon then use a sump on the 75


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