External or Internal Return pump?

[maxfischer]

I just started building a new tank, its going to be a 75gallon with a 40gallon breeder as a sump. The tank will sit against a wall on an 18” side and will have the overflow drilled on this side. The tank will be viewable on 3 sides 2 48” sides and one 18” side. And back to my question, should I use an external return pump since I will have a free 16” of room under the stand or just stick with an internal?

I have always had a internal pump, what would some benefits of the external be?

 

[Joel A]

i've debated this myself.. currently have internal but am thinking of going external...

external pumps IMO tend to be higher quality.. (with the exception of some high quality pumps like eheims that can be run internal or external) but the external pump gives you more space in your sump, less heat in your sump, probably not as noisy as you can sit them on a foam pad or something like that to quiet them if they do happen to be a bit noisy out of the box..

drawbacks i can see are that if it leaks, it's in your stand and on your floor, not in the tank.. and you have to go through the trouble of drilling your sump in order to utilize an external properly.. and what i said about the heat transfer in the sump is vice versa for an internal pump.. they run a bit hot in the water so they increase water temp which is good in the winter, but bad in the summer.

They both have pro's and cons, but if i did it over again i'd go external for less noise, and generally higher quality pumps... plus a little bit more space in the sump

 

[Miller]

We had an internal pump in our old apartment because it was under the stand. Now that we are have a basement fish room we are running an external pump because of the head pressure.

If it were me I would look at electric efficiency, get a quality pump that moves the amount of water you want with the least amount of watts.

Though external pumps do seem to be built a bit more "bullet proof" if you ask me.