Water pump questions
 

1. What is the ideal GPH? Does it depend on the way the system is setup?

2. Also how would I have the water pump turn on automatically when the system is turned on?

3. Last question. I was thinking of buying a Danner Mag-Drive because it's the only one my local pet shop sells. Are these pumps any good?

1. it's probably a good idea to get a pump rated at at least 120gph, anything less than that would probably be too wimpy.

2. to have the water pump turn on with the computer, you must use a relay, there's a great article on that on www.overclockers.com

3. Many people on this forum have danner mag-drive pumps and love them. Other's have ha problems with leaky propeller housings. In any case, RTV silicone caulk seems to correct this problem.

--Matt

Thanks!

no problem. you may still want to check around though. Eheim pumps are a bit quieter but cost more. And if you fancy them RIO pumps are extremely cheap. I've had bad luck with them but other people here have differing views on them.

--Matt

Just bought a danner mag drive model 2. This thing is huge! I didn't think it would be this big. Anyway I made a temporary closed loop so I could run in next to my monitor. I usualy have my PC about 11" from my monitor. I moved my case over placed the water pump where my pc would be and turned it on. The first thing that happens it my monitor goes nuts. Like it was degaussed but a little milder. I moved the pump farther and farther away until it went away. I eventualy moved the pump 3 feet way! Now if I were to mount this in my PC won't it do damage to my hdds. I put a floppy next to the thing for about an hour and the data was OK, but it scares me that I have to move it that far away from my monitor. How close can I mount a Ehiem pump? I think I'm gonna return this pump. It's loud, bulky, and the fitting on the pump are too big. The thread on this thing is OD 3/4" ID 1/2. I would use 1/2 stuff but I already have a radiator that is used for 3/8 ID hoses.

I had no idea the pump affected the monitor that much. I have my case nearly a foot away from my monitor. I wonder if there is other experience w/ E.M. distortion by other water freaks out there?

If you think the Danner is big, than don't even think about an Eheim.

That was the first thing I tried when I got my Eheim 1250 (317GPH). It had no effect whatsoever, even when it was physically touching the monitor. I was very releaved to find out that the 1250 was apperently well shielded.

Very interesting....

I am using a Rio 1100 in my water cooling system and my case is less than a foot away from my monitor and the pump is at most 15" away as well....no EMI here.


(Yes, I have heard that Rio pumps are not reliable however this one will be running NON-stop 24/7/365 except when I move the case. Ive heard that as long as you dont turn the thing on and off a lot then it will run for years)
)

I tried the same thing as even my cell phone will make the monitor go nuts, and there wasn't any noticable disturbance with a mag-drive model 3. I would have to wonder if cerain frequencies and signals would affect monitors differently?

I really hope a cell phone doesn't have ten times the emmissions as a 35 watt magnetic pump, or I'll need to worry about a tumor before my data dissapears.

I however frequent all the water-cooling sites and haven't yet heard anyone say that there pump killed there hard drive, my opinion is your safe with most aquarium pumps.

my eheim 1048 is actualy quite small. And, if you want a smaller pump you may want to get a rio, there are lots of closed loop and mini-res mods for them. Check around. And about the noise on the monitor, is your monitor signal cable near the power cable for the pump, it if's not shielded that could be causing the distortion. You could also have a defective EMI shield, in any event, you'll deffinitely wanna have the pump checked out. These pumps have to meet prety strict FCC regulations just like everythin else elictrical/electronic and it shouln't do that. Well, good luck with your situation.

--Matt


*Update* I put my spare 1048 right next to my monitor and ran it, there was no interference.

I went over to another pet shop today to pick up some crickets for my geckos, and I noticed that he had a Danner Mag drive model two but the box looked different than the one I bought. The one in the store had a picture of a fish on it and the one I bought had a picture of a pond and said 'pondmaster'. I figured that I bought the wrong one so I decided to buy this one. Guess what, this one doesn't mess up my monitor like the first one I got. I also noticed that the first one I got was a lot heavier than the other one. The size of the pondmaster is a little bigger too (longer). The other one I just picked up will fit inside my case. What’s weird is that they both say Model 2 on the back but they’re different. If I had a digital cam I would show you guys. This one is much quieter than the pondmaster. I’m now ready to finish my H20 project. I returned the Pondmaster pump.

According to Danner the differences between the PondMaster and the MagDrive is the PondMaster has stainless steel screws instead of steel or plastic, an 18' cord instead of 6' and a 3/4" barbed intake molded into the head rather than a 1/2" NPT female fitting and a filter.

I've never seen anything listed about EMI or a weight differance, and the head plates are exchangable.

Very interesting though (and could make sense). Fish likely wouldn't enjoy EMI either (especially tropical), but I can't back this up.

The 'ideal' GPH is the highest you can get, without the pump adding too much heat into your system. Eheim 1250 seems to be very popular.

So a rio should last me a couple months till i can get the money for a better pump. the question is where can i get a rio pump ? and what one should i get

I'd get a maxi jet instead of a rio. The largest maxi jet is 298 gph and about $20. They are small and extremely relieable. I've been running one nonstop for about 8 years or more.

hmm, yeppers, rio's are good. I put a rio180 on my videocard cooler. It's a little louder than my eheim 1048 but barely audible over my case fans. I guess rio's aren't bad.

--Matt

Maybe I am mistaken but the only pump I found that pumped 295 gph was a powerhead.

That Maxi Jet is a Powerhead, not an inline pump. That seems like it would be rather difficult to mount in a watercooling system.

Ideas?

From what I've seen, the Maxijet can function without the powerhead attachments. The only thing I don't know for sure is the size of the fittings. Here are some watercooled setups at overclockers.com that use Maxijets:

http://www.overclockers.com/tips447/

http://www.overclockers.com/tips505/

I've heard that that the output fitting is 5/8" ID and the input is 3/8" ID. If I got that right, the fittings are pretty standard sizes which is good. I'm planning on using a Maxijet 1200 in my setup, as I need a small, reliable pump.

Well imho eheim 1250 and 1048 is the best pumps....

But 1060 is the monster :)

Ive been thinking of a 1060 .. but since the upgrade from the 1048 to 1250 .. ive not noticed any BIG temp change.. but the effects of the bigger flowrate would probably just show when your using a peltier?
or is my waterblock Germed up ? =)

Dont know.. all i wanted to say was eheim makes damn good pumps!

I'm glad someone mentioned those Maxjet pumps. Here's a url of the pumps I found. http://www.fishgallery.com/pos/categories/107.html

They list 2 pumps, ones the maxijet the other is the mini jet thats smaller and has an adjustable flow rate.

I was thinking of getting the minijet606 that sports a maximum 153gph.

Anyone have any thoughts?

I used a Minijet606 on my watercooling project, but I was disappointed in my temps. so I'm swapping it out for a MaxiJet 900. It puts out 230gph, and only runs at 8.5 watts (the MiniJet runs at 6). The 1200 pumps 295gph, but the sucker runs at 20 watts. It just didn't seem worth it to get the extra gph and then add all that heat to the water.

Having said that, I'm not sure if it's low water flow that the cause of my higher temps (1.33 AXIA @ 1466 idles at 37) or something else.

will a 26 watt pump add more heat compared to one that uses 8 watts?

What about this ViaAuqua 480 anybody have one. It seems like this would be a good pump, small and noiseless at 200 GPH. http://leufkentechnologies.com/page5.html

http://leufkentechnologies.com/graphics/image45.gif

I may be wrong but that looks EXACTLY like a RIO pump with barbs stuck in it...

One would reason that a higher flow rate would mean a better cooling performance, with maybe a point of diminishing returns. In practice that's not the case however, and I've seen plenty of tests to back it up. There ends up being sort of a bell curve of performance, with the underrated pumps obviously performing worse, increasing in efficiency up to a certain optimum point, after which performance _decreases_, ostensibly from the radiator not having enough time to dissipate the heat into the ambient air, thus recirculating hot water. Different setups have different optimal flow rates based on fitting/pipe size, waterblock characteristics, etc. In most tests of typical computer watercooling systems, I've seen around 6gph realworld throughput as optimum. Note that this is NOT the same as the rating on the pump... in the real world, the pump works against viscosity, restrictions from bottlenecks (1/8" at any part of the system will make the pump work that hard effectively for the whole system), etc. So for optimum performance, I recommend using a relatively large capacity pump (personally, I would go with around 250gph, and yes they make magdrive units like this that aren't powerheads), and throttling the output with a check valve until you reach the optimal flow rate. There are scads of flow meters out there to aid you in this journey. Hope this was enlightening.