I'm going to start doing bucketless w/c on my tank. I have a very small Alife 8watt water pump and it only connects to hose that is 0.5" diameter. I'm not sure what gph rate (maybe 120?).

It takes a 20 feet long hose to connect my tank to the bath tub in the bathroom. I wondering whether this pump would powerful enough to pump the water to the tub through the 20 feet long hose and I need to mention the 20 feet distant is not a straight line. There is a 90 degree turn.

I try not to buy too much equipments, so if this pump will work, then all I need is a 20 feet hose. Otherwise, I need to get another set of water pump and hose.

I appreciate any inputs.

If you can find the pump's model number, you will be able to look up its specifications online.

The pumping distance isn't too important; What is most important is hard corners/bends and height differences. As long as the hose isn't kinked or deformed by the bend (it follows a nice curve around the corner), it will not put much back-pressure on the pump.

Is the tub above or below the bottom of the tank? Since you didn't mention any stairs, I'll assume they're on the same floor. In that case, the tub should be lower than the tank, and you will be able to do w/c using siphon action. The greater the height difference between the surface of the water in the tank and the end of the hose in the tub, the greater the flow rate.

If you use a pump, the siphon effect will still function, giving you a somewhat higher flow rate. Likewise, pumps lose flow rate when lifting water, and all pumps have a "cutoff" height beyond which the weight of the water in the hose exceeds the pump's output pressure. Thus, if your tub is upstairs from the tank, you will be unable to pump water to the tub unless you use a large, high-pressure pump.

You should be able to find bulk hose at the local hardware store, sold by the foot, with varying inner and outer diameters. I bought some 5/8" inner diameter (ID) hose for about $0.65/foot. Buy 5 feet more than you think you need.

Thanks for your reply Penguin.. My tank is about 5 feet height on the stand. So I might have some problems pumping the water into it since my water storage tank sits on the floor (couple feet lower than the fish tank). I prepare the water in a separate tank before pump the water into the fish tank.

The biggest factor is the difference in water levels, so your pump may start out able to lift the water, but as the storage level drops and tank level rises, the pump may stall.

Try to find the pump's specs online. You may find that it's able to lift up to 6'. Otherwise, you'll only find out by testing.

I couldn't find the specs of my pump in terms of gph output rate.

It's a Alife AE-01-1200, VOLT: 100-115V, 60HZ. Watt: 8W. I believe it's pretty small (around 100GPH?). I had difficulties pumping water from a 5g bucket to my 20g using this pump before. The bucket was on the floor n the tank on stand.

It sounds like you'll need a larger pump to achieve what you're doing, if you've had trouble in the past with the current pump. From what I've seen in product listings, you'll need a pump that runs between 10 and 20 watts to be able to lift the water.

An alternative I've heard of is running two pumps in-line: The output from the first pump feeds to the input of the second, increasing their lifting capacity. If you have a second pump of similar size to the one you're using, neither of which is quite strong enough, that method may work.

I think I would just get a bigger pump. I need to get rid of some of my small pumps. anyone interested?

Where do you buy waterpumps? Or are what you are talking about more or less a pond pump?

Pond pumps/powerheads-- to me the only difference is that pond pumps are more powerful because the construction is near identical-- can be purchased pretty much anywhere. Big Al's has a great selection and awesome prices (we got a 692GPH pump for $39).

Thanks ThoughtsOfJoy........ that would definately empty my tank faster than the python did last night!! I may have to check that out.

We used ours to make a canister filter.