Power Heads VS Pond Pumps

Jonasburns

Jonasburns

New Member
I was wondering if anyone had experience with making Misters or Drip systems with a aquarium power head instead of an actual water pump. The difference in price for a power head is much lower than the cost of a pond pump.


Not to mention you in no way need 100 / GPH + to run a automatic drip system. Or a mister for that matter as long as the misting head is pressurized.


Any thoughts would be appreciated. I plan on going to petsmart / petco later today to find out the real cost of power heads as i have not bought one in several years. But im positive it can be made less that what everyone is spending at home depot. And will report back what i can. :D

Cheers


*EDIT* I see just skimming the petco site they are still pretty cheap. This might work it states its for 20-40 gal aquariums which prob means 20 lol and it comes with a 20" tube for say placement in a bucket or tote that holds your water.

http://www.petco.com/product/109837/PETCO-Power-Head.aspx?cm_mmc=CSEMGooglebase-_-Fish-_-PETCO-_-1191314&mr:trackingCode=01F2EB15-8381-DE11-B7F3-0019B9C043EB&mr:referralID=NA


I think ill go ahead and try this. It could even save me money in my hydroponics projects, which i had been using pond pumps. Sheesh sometimes it just pays to be diligent.

I would still love to hear what everyone thinks.
 
I havent had any experience with making a drip system with either but my female jackson hates being sprayed so im looking forward to see how your system turns out so i can get some ideas rolling.
 
I actually want to give shouts to user ClulpepperC, this is his idea I am going to try to reduce the cost by putting in a power head. I def feel that you wont need anywhere near the 260 gph that pump is using.


For a general Idea check out his thread.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/drip-system-setup-43933/



I will prob buy a snap top 18gallon tote so I almost never have to think about filling it up or running out of water. At the same time if I decide to put a mister in as well I can just add it to this tote. But you could make it any reasonable size, I don't have to carry my stuff as I have a python fish tank cleaner i can easily fill these up with. My guess is a 5gal bucket with top from the hardware store would suffice.

If this works well I will tutorial it up with a parts list. I'm such a geek lol :D
 
If you go with some of the larger Mag series pumps you might be ok. The biggest issue you will find is these pumps are not designed for head pressure applications. If you can keep the head pressure low you should have no problem making a DRIP system.

Carl
 
My thoughts exactly, if you design a misting system you would want to get a much stronger source for moving the water but for dripping this is ok.


Thanks Mate!
 
Pond

You'll want a pond pump. Power heads are made to move a lot of water at or under the water surface - they're not made to pump against much resistance. Pumps made for ponds have a wide range of performance capabilities. Get a pump rated for more than 7 ft. of "head" ( head is the distance the pump must raise the output above the surface of the body of water). It should handle the back pressure of a low pressure misting system without a problem. Mine is rated for 350 gallons per hour (gph) or about 1300 litres per hour. Works great.
 
Those are nice pumps. You can also see that it shows the GPH for the heads as you push water up and how much it reduces. I have a similar one to the cheapest model they have. Its pretty powerful more than I needed for the aeroponics unit it's in.
 
Seeing that I work in the saltwater aquarium industry, I am curious to see how many of you have built a successful misting system from aquarium pumps...any of you in here done this? Please let me know before I buy a mistking, which will be soon. I have a Sicce psk-2500 return pump which is rated for 650gph...any ideas if that will suffice as long as I get a misting head that pressurizes the water
-clay
 
I got some orbit nozzles today from home depot that mist very well and at low flow. I drilled and taped some 1/4" swaglock fittings to mount them in because I did not like their tubing or plastic mounts. Tomorrow I am going to get some pond pumps to see which one works best. Also going to put a 1/4" needle valve in to see how I can control the mist. Does anyone know of a timer that does less than a minute?
 
Eppler said:
I got some orbit nozzles today from home depot that mist very well and at low flow. I drilled and taped some 1/4" swaglock fittings to mount them in because I did not like their tubing or plastic mounts. Tomorrow I am going to get some pond pumps to see which one works best. Also going to put a 1/4" needle valve in to see how I can control the mist. Does anyone know of a timer that does less than a minute?
Click to expand...

One of the site sponsors carrys a seconds timer for what i consider a reasonable price.

We like pictures! :D If you have time once your finished.
 
Hmm, Im also in southern california. this is interesting any names of store where they are available?
 
Don't use either pump! They were not designed for that application. Try the TOM Aqua lifter Aw20. It's a 3.5 GPH dosing pump. It even lists "reptile drip system" right on the box. The best part is it's cheaper than a power head or pond pump ($14.00).

oh yeah.. you can also run it wet (water pump) or dry (air pump) with out hurting it.

http://www.animalworldnetwork.com/vacpumaqlifa.html

I run mine twice a day for a minute with a couple of .99$ air stones and a $12 brinks digital timer from Walmart.

Jason
 
lol that's not helpful at all :p I only suggested the mist king b/c the cheapest multiple setting timer they have at home depot is $20 ( last i checked), but its only 1 min or more. Having trouble finding one elsewhere.


Is a 1 minute spray time too long? I know this varies, is the goal to raise the humidity in the cage or to just get everything wet? this is one of the things im having a hard time understanding.

If we went with 1 minute timers can we just have it turn on less times during the day?
 
I to do not understand the appropriate spray times. I would think random, like misting 5 times a day for different time intervals ....i dont know anything though hah so im probably wrong
 
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