aquarium-safe water pumps

[Fishdude]

Alright last random question for the week - water pumps! I need to find a pump that can move water from a reservoir into some of my tanks, and from the drainage basin (from tank overflows) into my sink drain. These should run submerged and I don't want something that could leak oil into the water for obvious reasons! Any good product leads for pumps like these? Gracias!

[Jungle Fan]

I'm no large scale water pump guru but I have several friends who were professional divers and who maintain an array of fairly large marine tanks and they all seem to use Ecotech Marine Vectra  water pumps, they are quite large, and from what I understand pricey varying from $300 to just shy of $500, they have a lot of flow but are surprisingly very quiet, and from what I understand are supposedly high rated in the marine fish community. Now mind you I don't know how much flow you are looking for, nor what price range, and all my experience with those is limited to looking at them in action and hearing their praises being sung. So I don't know if this helps but I thought I'd mention it.

[Daniel]

The Iwaki use is sealed with a magnetic impeller and can develop 17.7 feet of head. No sure about running underwater:

[Eric R]

12 hours ago, Fishdude said:

Alright last random question for the week - water pumps! I need to find a pump that can move water from a reservoir into some of my tanks, and from the drainage basin (from tank overflows) into my sink drain. These should run submerged and I don't want something that could leak oil into the water for obvious reasons! Any good product leads for pumps like these? Gracias!

@Fishdude  You should try to estimate the flow and head that you need so you can size the pump. Sicce is a good quality aquarium brand that has some affordable options. Sicce has an Ultra Zero Utility pump for $100 that is designed for what you need. Ecotech Vectras are awesome if you want a powerful very reliable pump that will last a long time being run 24/7, but they are really designed to be return pumps for higher end reef tanks, so you're paying for more reliablity than you may need for what this sounds like. A pond pump should work as well.

You could also figure out if you can plumb the pump externally like @Daniel does and increase your options.

 

Edited April 3, 2021 by ererer

[gardenman]

Nearly any larger modern pond/fountain pump should be adequate. The Mag Drive family of pumps is very good. I've used them before with good success. Lately I've used the cheap Chinese made pumps (Kedsum). I've got a 400 gallon per hour one in my outdoor stock tank that I use to water my planters. It comes on and runs for twenty minutes a day from May through October with no hiccups at all. (It's on a smart plug.) I've found the Mag Drives wear out at the same rate as the cheap pumps, so I just buy the cheap ones these days. (What typically wears out are the end caps and rotors. Replacing those often costs as much as a new pump.) Most of the smaller capacity pumps you'll find these days use the magnetic drive and are sealed, so there's no oil to leak. If you're worried about oil leaking then you're probably familiar with the old Little Giant pumps from decades ago. That was more of an issue then when they used a shaft drive and the seal around the shaft could fail. Most modern water pumps use a magnetic drive and no oil at all so there's no oil to leak.

Edited April 3, 2021 by gardenman

[KBOzzie59]

This is the pump I use.

https://www.amazon.com/Superior-Pump-91250-Submersible-Thermoplastic/dp/B000X05G1A/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=submersible+water+pump&qid=1617455125&sr=8-5