What is the best pump?

I want to begin purchasing componenets for my 55. Until it is online they will also serve as back up in case my 29g pump should fail. There are so many to choose from. Does anyone have practical experience on which pump and how big I should purchase?

While you are at it, suggest a heater. I think I want a Eheim something. RC has a new blog on an emergency kit for reef keeping. VERY informative and wise council there. I bet you guys could come up with a better E-kit list.

I like stealth heaters. No thing fancy, but reliable. I would not recommend buying a Visi-Therm. Use a temp controller!

Are you looking for an internal or external pump?

Aren't the stealth heaters made by Visi-Therm? I had one of the stealths and it was dead from the getgo, I have the regular visi therms in all my tanks and never had an issue with them. I like ebo jagers as well. Don't know about eheim heaters but their pumps are supposed to be really good, not cheap but less wattage than say a mag pump.

Stealth is made by Marineland. I've never had good luck with the Visi-therms.

I love the marineland stealths!

I like the ebo jager I have now. The top fins I have had I will never buy again had a few stay on when water level got to low. I have a rio pump I like, cheaper than most out there but would like to find a better pump.

As to pumps, I've used the quiet ones, they have worked well for me. I've used them both internally, and externally.

The pump I have now is an external one, but I can't remember the name. It is fairly quiet.

I only use quiet ones for my pumps.

I'm a big fan of Quiet Ones - will likely run my fishroom systems with them. They've been around forever it seems, and are very reliable and QUIET! Reef Propagations Inc uses them for most of their systems.

Yes, Visitherm and Stealths come from the same company last time I checked. I've had 2 Stealths fail since we moved here. I've had at least 2 more fail in the past. 4 failures in 5 years? Starting to question the quality. Frankly, I've been toying with switching to something well known for quality like Ebo Jager. IDK...still up in the air on heaters.

Stealths are bad go with http://www.aquacave.com/finnex-150w-heater-with-brdigital-controller-1916.html This is the only heater i will use. Stealths fail alot i just about lost my tank do to one.

Finnex? I may have mentioned this here before but I've had horrible problems with Finnex - had a MH fixture repeatedly burn out bulbs prematurely and ultimately, after repeated service attempts, actually had it "blow up" (short out, sparks & smoke) when I turned it on. They blamed my home electrical (which happened to be new as of 2006 and ran a JBJ Viper just fine).

Makes me REALLY nervous about anything "Finnex" related.

mpedersen wrote:Finnex? I may have mentioned this here before but I've had horrible problems with Finnex - had a MH fixture repeatedly burn out bulbs prematurely and ultimately, after repeated service attempts, actually had it "blow up" (short out, sparks & smoke) when I turned it on. They blamed my home electrical (which happened to be new as of 2006 and ran a JBJ Viper just fine).

Makes me REALLY nervous about anything "Finnex" related.

Most poeple i know love them. sorry it did not like you lol

titanium heaters are better there is alot out there to pick from.

thank you everyone, good to know what has worked and what has failed.

IMO i would never use a heater after seeing everyone and there problems with any brand out there. I have had two fail and i am not sure what would have happened if i would not have had a controller and temp probes to prevent a disaster.

So I think that we are in agreement that there are no good heaters.

I'd almost be inclined to agree Phil!

The better way to say it is never use a heater and rely on the built in temp control. If there is ever a heater failure it is typically related to the thermostat built in sticking on or off...

Best way to do this is to have two heaters with one set slightly below the first heater. Then run both heaters on a controller of some sort (i use an AC3 but a Ranco is just as good). The controller will be the thermostat for the heaters and the heaters just heat. If the primary heater ever fails to turn on, the secondary heater will kick in and take its place since it is set a few degrees lower.

The nice thing about setting this up with a controller is you can set up criteria to disable the heating and cooling functions based on extremely low or extremely high temp readings. Typically when the temp probe goes bad it will read WAY high or WAY low. At that point your system can alert you via email or sound and you have a chance to investigate the issues without the system overheating or overcooling due to a bad probe...

** Forgot pumps... I use a CA4000 from Catalina Aquarium. They are cheap and effective for a tank my size. I have had one go bad but I bought it used. No issues with the new one. Low power usage too.