Abyzz vs. Reeflo, is it worth the cost???

[mfraembs]

I am working on my 350 gal build which has 18 to 20 head pressure from my fish room. The head pressure obviously limits my return pump selection and am thinking of either running 2 reeflo manta-Rey’s or 1 Abyzz A400. Is it worth the cost of going with Abyzz? How noisy is the Reeflo?

the pump will be in my fish room that is sound insulated and am curious how loud these two pumps actually are.

I have learned over time it’s better to buy once and cry once but this dang Abyzz is a super costly pump!

 

[flagg37]

I am working on my 350 gal build which has 18 to 20 head pressure from my fish room. The head pressure obviously limits my return pump selection and am thinking of either running 2 reeflo manta-Rey’s or 1 Abyzz A400. Is it worth the cost of going with Abyzz? How noisy is the Reeflo?

the pump will be in my fish room that is sound insulated and am curious how loud these two pumps actually are.

I have learned over time it’s better to buy once and cry once but this dang Abyzz is a super costly pump!

Are you sure the pump will be pushing the water 18-20 feet vertically? That could cover from a basement to the second floor.

 

[mfraembs]

Are you sure the pump will be pushing the water 18-20 feet vertically? That could cover from a basement to the second floor.

I used a pond pump calculator, I have 25’ of horizontal run 7’ of vertical rise, 2 90’s and two other fittings. It’s also plumbed in 1 1/4 pvc pipe.

 

[jda]

I strongly suggest that you look past ReeFlow. Abyzz is a wonderful pump at a large price, but there are many, many better pumps out there than ReeFlo. For head situations, PanWorld, Iwaki or BlueLine are the real deal. AmpMaster is longer lived and a better quality pump than ReeFlo. There are others newer to the market, but I have not used any of those.

If you do get a ReeFlo at least order new seals and have them on hand and new bearings might be a good idea too.

What are you looking at for a drain line and turnover? 750 GPH? 1000? 1500? That will help to know too. If you have not plumbed this yet, I would figure out the flow that you want at the tank, plumb it with 1" or 3/4 inch to match a PanWorld or BlueLine or whatever pump (larger is not better) and figure out the smallest pump possible for the lowest wattage. For 1000 GPH at that head, a PanWorld 150PS might be enough at 1000GPH at that head and only is about 180w (advertised, but mine have never used this much) and should last a decade. I would not suggest that just go with a huge pump just to do it since you will never get that power back. PanWorld 200PS should be about 1400-1500 at head, but it will be about 250 real running watts. Again, need to know what GPH you are looking for at the tank.

 

[jda]

BTW - that feels like 10-13 feet of head to me... just a swag. With a REAL pressure pump, horizontal runs are not a huge deal. 7 up, 2 elbows and maybe 1 to 4 more for pipe friction. I try and use soft line which cuts down on a lot of elbows. You can buy 50' rolls of it.

 

[mfraembs]

Thanks for the info! I wanted to use hard piping because the return line is under the homes building foundation and is much more durable in this application.

I have a bit of a unique setup. I am going to have my 350 gal display tank in the middle of our living room and is a walk around tank. I then have a 5’ deep concrete pit that the water from the display gravity feeds into and then is pumped into the equipment sump for filtration before it is pumped back into my return lines to the display. I have a few photos so you have a better idea.

photo #1 is the concrete pit in my fish room that is about 25’ away from the display

photo #2 is the living room of our new home that you can see the 3 drain lines, 2 returns, and 2 conduits for data wires.

hope that helps understand the system a bit better.

 

[HeyLookItsCaps]

+1 Iwaki is the Toyota of pumps IME

 

[SPR1968]

I am working on my 350 gal build which has 18 to 20 head pressure from my fish room. The head pressure obviously limits my return pump selection and am thinking of either running 2 reeflo manta-Rey’s or 1 Abyzz A400. Is it worth the cost of going with Abyzz? How noisy is the Reeflo?

the pump will be in my fish room that is sound insulated and am curious how loud these two pumps actually are.

I have learned over time it’s better to buy once and cry once but this dang Abyzz is a super costly pump!

You can probably get away with the a200 which is much cheaper, check this out

I have the a200 (and a spare) and they are completely silent

 

[jda]

That is unique. If it were me, I would give a pair of PanWorld 150ps/BlueLine 55 a try (or similar size Iwaki) - one on each return. That should be about 900-1000 GPH each. These pumps are no joke. They are super long lived and reliable workhorses.

They might be too small, then I would try 200PS, or equivalent... or keep stepping un until you are happy. 3-5x turnover is more than enough for me for a display to sump in a large tank where. It might be a pain, but running 800 watt pumps full time is worth the effort, IMO.

The only issue that I ever had with lower flow is lack of heat on cold days, but you should have a heater or two hidden in the tank for redundancies anyway - in tank heaters and flow pumps on different circuit than the sump heaters and return pumps. This fixed all issues.

PanWorld 150ps/BlueLine 55 really deliver nearly all of their water for the first 20 feet of head barely falling off. I don't know if the larger pipe will impact this... so factor that in as well. At about 150w of running wattage and a rock-solid track record, they need to be considered. They are quiet. They can get noisy if debris gets in them, but this is no different than any other pump.

If you do try Iwaki/PanWorld or BlueLine, keep an extra and enough soft hose to make the run up the stairs, around the corners and all of that. It might really come in handy if something bad happens or just to change some water beyond what the sump holds. A roll of 3/4" ID vinyl hose is pretty cheap on amazon as an insurance policy. You can get a used noisy pump for this. I have a 150ps attached to my RO (just in case) and Salt Mixing tanks with a barbed fitting and vinyl hose to move large amounts of water quickly and cleanly.

 

[malfist]

My partner has a 315 gallon tank, no super high head pressure, but needs a lot of volume through the sump. We originally had an ecotech vectra L2 on it turned up to 100%. It died after about a two years and we replaced it with an abyss A100. The A100 is rated GPH wise around 2/3's of the vectra L2, ideally, the vectra should well outperform the abyss. However, we can't run the abyss pump at max or else we overwhelm our sump intake plumbing and drain the sump. We wound up balancing it at ~70%, any faster and we can't keep the sump with water.

The abyss is built like a tank and handles head pressure like a champ. Just look at the difference in warranties. Abyss has a flat 10 year warranty. Vectra has a 1 year warranty but only if installed submerged. If you run it externally (like ecotech says you can do) it's specifically excluded from warranty claims.

 

[AlexG]

I was using a reeflo hammerhead on my 1600 gallon system for 3 years and another system before that. Reeflo pumps have a hum to them so there is always a little noise. The main challenge with reeflo pumps is the shaft seals. I have 2 reeflo hammerhead pumps I would rotate pre-actively every year with a fresh shaft seal as my spare at all times. I did have one shaft seal fail in just under 6months and cause a minor spill (a few gallons) in my fish room but I swapped out the pump and it was fixed within a day. No matter what kind of shaft seal you use if harsh marine environments will eventually trash them. While I have not run it yet I already purchased an Abyzz A400 for my main display to eliminate the shaft seal failure issues. If reeflo made a magnetic drive that was efficient and eliminated shaft seals I would consider using them again but for now mine will be emergency backups.

 

[C_AWOL]

Theres also the red dragon high pressure pumps as well thats more affordable and still has amazing build quality along with USA direct based support.

That's what made me decide on ultimately buying them over the abyzz which you have to go through coralvue (not that coralvue is bad but id rather go direct)

Frankly though if noise, heat, and energy cost isn't an issue then iwakis would probably be a better investment

 

[jpas]

The Red Dragon pumps are great. They actually flow at what they are rated. I have used Reeflo for years without any issues, however they are loud. The red dragon is totally silent and will out flow any Iwakis or blueline

 

[SPSReeferMI]

That is unique. If it were me, I would give a pair of PanWorld 150ps/BlueLine 55 a try (or similar size Iwaki) - one on each return. That should be about 900-1000 GPH each. These pumps are no joke. They are super long lived and reliable workhorses.

They might be too small, then I would try 200PS, or equivalent... or keep stepping un until you are happy. 3-5x turnover is more than enough for me for a display to sump in a large tank where. It might be a pain, but running 800 watt pumps full time is worth the effort, IMO.

The only issue that I ever had with lower flow is lack of heat on cold days, but you should have a heater or two hidden in the tank for redundancies anyway - in tank heaters and flow pumps on different circuit than the sump heaters and return pumps. This fixed all issues.

PanWorld 150ps/BlueLine 55 really deliver nearly all of their water for the first 20 feet of head barely falling off. I don't know if the larger pipe will impact this... so factor that in as well. At about 150w of running wattage and a rock-solid track record, they need to be considered. They are quiet. They can get noisy if debris gets in them, but this is no different than any other pump.

If you do try Iwaki/PanWorld or BlueLine, keep an extra and enough soft hose to make the run up the stairs, around the corners and all of that. It might really come in handy if something bad happens or just to change some water beyond what the sump holds. A roll of 3/4" ID vinyl hose is pretty cheap on amazon as an insurance policy. You can get a used noisy pump for this. I have a 150ps attached to my RO (just in case) and Salt Mixing tanks with a barbed fitting and vinyl hose to move large amounts of water quickly and cleanly.

I like the idea of adding a heater to the tank directly as a backup. If there is a pump or plumbing problem to the basement sump, the heater could be activated, remotely if necessary, to buy time for a fix. Does anyone have any advice on how to implement this without an extra cord in the tank? I was considering placing a heater in a closed loop, but it’s not that practical.

 

[co3(2-)]

I do use the A400 to push water to my 560 which is on the next floor up and a few elbows in place and it does a great job producing a ton of flow. I did have an issue that the bearings did seize to the rod of the impeller from a high PH environment and I broke one trying to free it during cleaning so if you do not have redundancy, it is advised to have a backup so plan for two. CoralVue and Abyzz immediately sent me the new bearings no questions asked. Great pump but advisable to run two lesser expense pumps unless you have the budget of course.

 

[jda]

You NEED to have heaters (and flow pumps) in the tank on a separate circuit from your return pump and sump stuff. This can save a tank. I have 2 Rancos - one with 4x heaters in the sump and 1 with 1x or 2x heaters in the display just in case. I had snail jam up my return not long ago, but the display was warm and oxygenated with that second circuit with the Tunze Pumps and heaters. My kids did something stupid which threw the main breaker in the sub panel (mower over an extension cord or something really dumb?)... went about 10 hours before I got home and the second circuit on the main panel kept everything like it never happened.

There are inline heaters for CLs. They are expensive, but super reliable and effective. Otherwise, probably Eheim on Ranco, or something like that. In line heater under the tank in a CL could be your main heat and you could have ugly stuff in the sump.

The cords and most of the non-hot parts of the heaters get covered in coralline fast for me, so I don't even notice them. I hide them behind/in the rocks. I am lucky and have a non-viewable back, so you have it harder.

I have used Speedy 3?. Great pumps. Not so great at pressure above a story - OK, but not great. Only Abyzz is in the class of Mag Drive or direct drive pumps (I mean like 3/4hp direct drive made for head and not a 1/3hp made for flow but used for head) for head, but even then, they are on the lower end if you have ever seen what a decade of a Mag or Direct drive can do.

 

[jpas]

Red Dragon makes a high pressure version of the Speedy 3. You would need the high pressure 230W version. Compare pump curves from each manufacturer and see what works best for your application.

For pumps in the size you are looking at, you really should be using 1.5" pipe

 

[Yodeling]

If you don’t care about noise, Panworld/Blueline would be my vote. The larger models definitely have a noticeable hum/vibration, but they are built like tanks and have no trouble overcoming head pressure.

 

[fftfk]

I’m in a similar situation as the OP minus the cement bucket. I had an Abyzz 100 and the drive unit burned out. I was disappointed with the Coralvue warranty service. I had an Abyzz A400 ready to be plumbed in but ended up returning it and going with a red dragon pump. Why spend the extra money for crappy service?

 

[maroun.c]

I've used reeflo, other pumps and just upgraded to abyzz A400. All pumps had some sound which increased as bearings got older, yet wasn't an issue for me as basement is only a fish room. Abyzz is nearly dead silent and while others pumps consumed 2.5-3 amps abyzz consumes 1.2 amps (i'm on 220 v so not sure if it'll be half or double for you on 110v )
My head is 16 ft vertical and 10 ft hor with 6 elbows. Pumo is able to push the water in my setup starting 70 percent setting and I run it at 90 percent and get 12000 lph which is around 3200 gph.
My advice is to contact abyzz and send them ur drawing, they were quite helpful in advising me which pump to use, they said A200 should be able to do it but I went with the 400 to have more capacity and I don't regret it.
Build quality and noise level is amazing.