Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I received my new pump today....It is WAY too powerful. It shoots water into the tank like a geyser. I put a dimmer in the cord but the pump won't operate without full power. The flow is not adjustable on my model. Is there anything I can put in the water line to slow it down? Maybe a pet-cock?

Thanks again,
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Matt

>>I received my new pump today....It is WAY too powerful. It shoots water into the tank like a geyser. I put a dimmer in the cord but the pump won't operate without full power. The flow is not adjustable on my model. Is there anything I can put in the water line to slow it down? Maybe a pet-cock?
>>
>>Thanks again,
>>-----
>>Matt

If you put something in the water line to slow it down, you will just cause the pressure to increase, and possibly burn up the pump. Better to return it and get one that's adjustable. Failing that, there are some things that you can do, such as blocking the flow of water once it leaves the hose. Pile some river rocks at the end, put it under some cork bark, ect.

Try increacing the diamater of the tubing. The same volume of water will come out, but it will have less pressure behind it, and will not "squirt" as hard.
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0.0.5 Blue Dendrobates Auratus
3.2.1 African Dwarf Frogs (Hymenochirus boettgeri)
2.2.0 Asian Floating Frogs (Occidozyga Lima)
1.1.0 White's Tree Frog (Litoria caerulea)

If your pump can be taken apart, you could take the rotor out and grind off each blade a little bit to make it less efficient...that way there would be less pressure, less flow but no overheating of the motor...(PS I have never tried it so don't do it without thinking this thru and made sure that you could get a new rotor if things don't work the way they should....)

In theory it would work, and would be the least noticeable, but I am thinking about when a ceiling fan blade gets out of whack, how it rhows the whole thing off balance.....I think the same would happen unless you shortened each one to the exact length.

Thanks
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Matt

Try tee it off back to the reservior. You could get a valve and slow down the flow and the extra pressure would go off to the tee and back to the reservior. That way you could control the flow. A hardware store should have the tubing, valve, and tee. Non-metal ones ofcourse.

WM

This is what I have decided to do....thanks for the help everyone.
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Matt

tried the tee, and it did not leave enough pressure to push the water up to the tank...gave me an idea though....I just cut a small hole in the tube....smaller than the tee hole
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Matt

Mount the valve off of the tee to control the flow up. You should have very good control of the flow with that set-up.

WM

Hey, if worse comes to worse, I'd always trade you one of my new smaller pumps!
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Homer W. Faucett III, esq.
Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense

You could try putting a T on the output of the hose, returning one back to the sump and the other to you water feature. Then adjust the diameter of the tube to the sump with a small hose clamp or something to pinch the tube to adjust your flow. I wouldn't try grinding the blades, you never get them balanced and it will cause the pump to vibrate and wear out quickly.