Scott's 270g aka Project Mayhem

[Scythanith]

Just bought the beauty on the right, a BK Double Cone 250 with RD speedy 3. Should be here next week!



I am really having a dilemma right now on choosing a return pump and manifold pump. I was waiting for the Waveline DC12000 but I am getting a little scared of the rumours of spotty customer service and reports of the new DC6000 having flow issues. I really like the Abyzz pumps but they are a lot of cash. I need reliability, over anything else, it needs to be reliable. I am going for long stretches and I don't expect my wife to change pumps out for me.

Can anyone rationalize one pump over another? Waveline, RD3's, Abyzz A400...

Thanks!

[sphelps]

This probably sounds familiar but I think the Abyzz is overpriced, in terms of reliability the price tag just simply isn't justified. The most reliable and steady pump I've ever owned was a RD6.5 so I'd consider an RD pump DC or AC over the Abyzz given they cost less than half. Plus it'll match your new skimmer

I agree the wavelines and speedwaves reliability is questionable, while the pumps I have seem to run pretty solid they have developed more noise suggesting wear and I've had two of the 3 controllers burn out, which I'm suspecting relates to the crappy power supply they come with. The power supplies should really be regulated and given the juice they require a fan cooled unit would be nice. I originally ran all my pumps of a single regulated power supply as I originally suspected the power supplies to be problematic but later switched back to the originals so each pump would run off it's own supply with the idea of better redundancy, however now I'm thinking of grabbing one or two more more regulated power supplies to prevent future issues.

With that all said the advantage off these cheaper alternatives is their significantly lower price tag allowing the ability to run two or more pumps in parallel allowing more flow opportunities and the added reliability that comes with multiple pumps, if one fails your system essentially remains unaffected. They are also the most popular so easy to get replacements and claim warranty. While a pumps like Abyzz have better warranties if it's your only pump it'll be much more inconvenient if it does have issues.

In regards to the newer versions of wavelines, you could purchase the old versions to run for a while, they are cheap enough and will actually hold decent value to make a later upgrades quite reasonable once issues are sorted.

[Scythanith]

Thanks Steve, I appreciate your view on the matter! I may go with the RD3's and still run the top sump pumps in tandem for redundancy. If I go lower priced DC pumps I will just go with whatever Colby has the best supply of. But you're right, at least I can get water flowing and replace the pumps with a high quality unit down the road.

I just have to see what the pocket book and accountant (aka. Wendy) will allow.

How's the little man doing?!

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by Scythanith

How's the little man doing?!

He's good, funny but the noise made by the three wavelines work really well for putting him to sleep. Another thing to consider if you and Wendy ever go down that road

[Scythanith]

So I have been doing a little figuring on costs for DC pumps. Here is what I came up with.

RE RD3 speedy 65W 1848 gph $753 2.45g per $ 2yr warranty
Speedwave DC10000 2640 gph $200 13.2g per $ can't find literature (assume 1 yr)
Waveline DC12000 3170 gph $280 11.3g per $ can't find literature (assume 1 yr)
Abyzz A400 4910 gph $2340 2.1g per $ 10yr warranty

Where does this leave me... I don't know. The higher the inferred quality, the higher the price. I just have to decide what my pocket book will handle.

[Scythanith]

Some progress has been made! You can see the scullery sink we had made up sitting in place. It will sit "on top" of the countertop once it's in. I think we will buy some back splash tiles from HD or Rona and do a back splash as well. Above the back splash will be some peg board or something like that to hang tools.

You can see the opening on the left for the mini freezer.

[Scythanith]

Delivery day!







I have an issue with the dimensions of the sump and my sump chamber. It fits almost perfectly aside from a bulkhead I have in the back righthand of the sump. The base for the skimmer just overlaps the bulkhead so the skimmer doesn't sit flat. I am going to find someone that CNC's plastic and have them build me a little 1/2" tall base that the system sits on.

Cheers,
Scott