Any good water pumps or canister filters?

Lucas · #1 03-27-2011, 01:43 PM

Hello, everyone. I have a tank that is 24" tall and I really want to build a waterfall in it. I have a piece of driftwood that the water could stream down that goes down the length of the tank and afterwords I would like the water to stream across the ground and into a small pond.

I have looked for a VERY long time to find a good site that provides info on what water pumps are good for waterfalls and I have found NONE. I am looking for suggestions on what canister filters, water pumps, anything that can pump water two feet through a tube and down to make a cool stream. Are there any good ones that are quiet or at least dont make the vivarium vibrate too much? I bought a Top Fin power head 30 yesterday and I plan on returning it because it isnt powerful enough and it is quite loud.

To summarize: I want a powerful means to pump water 24" up and then down. I would prefer it to make a flowing stream and not to just trickle.

Please, if anyone has any experience with making waterfalls, I would greatly appreciate your input. And thanks to anyone reading this.

ElliotGood13 · #2 03-29-2011, 09:51 PM

How large of a water area will the water fall run into?

Lucas · #3 03-30-2011, 12:12 AM

Pretty small, just enough for a crested gecko and a frog to soak in. But I just went to PetSmart today and returned the Top Fin pump and while I was looking around I saw a Repto Filter so I bought that. The thing works great! It pumps plenty of water and cleans it at the same time. I'll be putting my vivarium together tomorrow and i'll post how it ends up.

zirk33 · #4 04-09-2011, 02:31 PM

Lucas, I've been working on the same idea. I just picked up my waterfall this week and will need to make some modifications to it so that it will run into my pond area. The tank I am working with is a 46g Bowfront and my pond area is probably holding between 1 and 2 gallons of water. I was thinking of setting this up much like they do for outdoor ponds with the filter system sitting outside for easy cleaning and maintenance. Anyone following this post have any thoughts or ideas. Lucas I will be stopping by my local PetSmart to check out the Repto Filters. Thxs guys!

jhouse · #5 04-14-2011, 11:58 PM

I used to run waterfall in my viv (you can see my setup on this site) and they are really amazing and really bring the viv to life, not to mention how running water will stimulate natural drinking behavior versus standing water. But a few things that I wrestled with were water quality and evaporation. Maintaining a high water quality can be challenging depending on the substrate and surface area the water has to make contact with, and depending on what critters you are keeping - even with a good canister filter. Secondly, evaporation is crazy nuts with a waterfall setup. I am not sure if I am going to setup a waterfall again in my viv but if I do I would try to implement an ATO that my snakes can't trip, and either try to sump the water area or do a very high quality external canister filter that primes easily.

jakeyost89 · #6 04-20-2011, 08:26 PM

I personally like the Mini-Jet pumps, particularly the 606 model. It has an adjustable flow rate, and can pump up to 46" vertically. Here's a listing on ebay, on which you can view the pump. Has a decent description, as well as a good price.

Aquarium Systems Mini-Jet 606 Compact Water Pump NIB - eBay (item 370238316818 end time Apr-22-11 12:28:02 PDT)