pumps - submerged or not

[jude]

I bought a second hand tank complete with sump. It came with a brand new pump which says it can be used either submersibly or out of the tank as an in-line pump.

Is there any reason why submersed would be any better than in-line - or vice versa?

Cheers

Jude

[tee-em]

Centrifugal pumps prefer a bit of intake pressure.. so if your in-line will have a higher head of water use it in-line.

Put another way,... if the water level in the in-line pipe feeding the pump is higher than the water level of the sump you will have better flow rate. I making sweeping assumptions that you have proper feeding pipes without too many restriction etc.

If sound and temperature and space is an issue you need to way these criteria up as well.

chrs

[suphew]

Running a pump inline can be a problem to prime unless you drill the tank and if you lose power you somehow have to get it started again. Pump in tank will add heat which may or may not be a problem, maintainance can be a little higher cause the pump will get covered in crap. On the plus side they are usually quieter in the tank, and far easier to setup (eg no drilling, priming issues)

[jude]

Thanks, sounds like the best option is to put it in the sump tank.

Cheers

Jude

[shiuh]

im a lazy fish keeper, try to get away all the maintainence as much as possible. my submerged pump sometimes gets clog a bit and losing a bit of power pumping and i hate cleaning and clearing out all the crap. but you have to do it once in a while. :roll:

[Ira]

With a sump like you have, Jude, it's just easier to run it submerged. Just drop it in the water in the sump and run a hose to the tank. Otherwise you'd have to do something like run a hose out of the sump, to the pump then from the pump back to the tank. Why make it more complicated than necessary?

[richms]

Also the additional plumbing will make cleaning the filter a lot more involved then simply lifting it out and popping the instake open, will be held in place by the piping moreso