IM Nuvo 10 Return Pump Redundancy

[DWill]

I've working toward adding redundancy and safeguards to my IM 10. I have the 310 gph IM Mighty Jet return pump, it's the only pump in the system. It serves as both a flow pump and a return pump. t's a great pump, quiet, powerful enough to give plenty of flow in the tank (in fact I have to turn it down some). But, it's the only pump in the system... if it fails disaster will happen if I'm home.

So, I wondering if there is a way to put a redundant return pump in the system. There's only one 1/2 inch return line to the display side, however, the partition between the sump side and the display side is acrylic. It shouldn't be too difficult to add another return if necessary.

Since the secondary pump would be an "emergency" pump it would need to have as much flow. 100 gph would turn the tank over nearly 10X

Thoughts, suggestions?

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

I had the same issue on my Waterbox 20 and the best solution I could come up with was to add an additional pump and run it through a reactor filled with pond matrix, and then it dumps out on top of the screen.

It's going to be tough to add another pump with how small that return pump chamber is.

 

[Kellie in CA]

I'll be watching this thread as I have the exact same situation and it has occurred to me that I will be in trouble if the MightyJet fails.

 

[intricate_reefer]

The back in those tanks are pretty tight. Not sure if you could fit two smaller AC pumps into the return section and put a Y in to run them together. If not using the 2nd section you could maybe add one there and drill an outlet hole. Another option would be buying something with power monitoring to let you know if the pump stopped using power. I would just add a mp10 with a battery backup to the display that way you are protected even in a power outage.

 

[DWill]

I don't know if the MP10 is a viable option. I think it would blow the tank up even dialed down. The Mighty Jet is dialed down if not, it puts out a lot of flow in the tank. That said; IM makes a small DC pump/wavemaker for these tanks. It's about the size of an egg. I might pick one up. I could dial the Might Jet return pump back and let the IM nano pump handle flow. If the MIghty Jet fails I'd at least have flow, but still no heat.

The other option would be a small fountain pump, there is room for that. I would at least have some water circulation and heat to the display.

 

[DWill]

I'll be watching this thread as I have the exact same situation and it has occurred to me that I will be in trouble if the MightyJet fails.

Yeah, I was out of town last weekend and it occurred to me that if the pump quits that's all there is.

 

[intricate_reefer]

I don't know if the MP10 is a viable option. I think it would blow the tank up even dialed down. The Mighty Jet is dialed down if not, it puts out a lot of flow in the tank. That said; IM makes a small DC pump/wavemaker for these tanks. It's about the size of an egg. I might pick one up. I could dial the Might Jet return pump back and let the IM nano pump handle flow. If the MIghty Jet fails I'd at least have flow, but still no heat.

The other option would be a small fountain pump, there is room for that. I would at least have some water circulation and heat to the display.

I have one of the KPS wave makers that is tiny and fully controllable which would probably work if you go that route, its a really nice pump. Don't think you can put it on a battery backup though.

 

[DWill]

This morning I took a little deeper dive into this redundancy question. it seems there’s room for another Mighty Jet in the return chamber if just stack vertically. I could continue to run the same water level, the only loss would be a very small amount of volume lost to displacement.

I don’t think it would be possible to run a separate return for each pump though. What I’m thinking might work is this; add a check valve to each return line ahead of ”T” in the line. If a pump failed the check valve would prevent the working from pumping water through the failed pump, basically circulating water in the return chamber.

Running two Mighty Jets in line you’d need to split the flow between the two pumps. Easy enough to do with pump controller. If pump failed you’d lose half the circulation just as if you had two separate pumps.

There is a down side though. I run the IM DC skimmer, it fills almost all of the center chamber. This left little to no room to put filter media (chemi-pure blue and carbon). What I did was use egg crate and built a platform that sits just under the water surface in the return chamber. I put filter media on that platform. There’s good constant flow there and it breaks up any micro bubbles coming over from the skimmer. I don’t if my media platform will work if there are two pumps in the return chamber. If not the only place to put them is the filter sock, or, switch to the media rack. Neither is really appealing to me.

 

[ingchr1]

You probably won't need check valves. I run dual pumps in my Waterbox 40.2 without any. With one pump off there is still flow into the tank, and that's all your looking for if a pump fails. Also if a pump does fail, your return section and possibly other chambers will go high due to the reduced flow. Something to be cognizant of since it will affect your ATO.

Here's a link to my setup using Loc-Line. Not sure if you would have enough room in a 10 to do it this way, but I'm sure there's a way.

AIO Build - Waterbox Marine AIO 40.2 Build (by ingchr1)

Setting up my first reef tank, a Waterbox Marine AIO 40.2. The last tank I had was about 20 years ago and was a 55 gallon fish only. I selected an AIO since the location I have for the tank will not accommodate any other cabinets for housing supplies and electronics. The footprint of the area is...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[chowberg]

I don't know if the MP10 is a viable option. I think it would blow the tank up even dialed down

Hello - in case you change your mind and want to go this route I had a MP10qd on my NUVO10 and it was okay. I used this and a Sicce .5. It was always under 30%, you are correct anymore than that it would be too turbulent.