Advice on a pump

[gwand]

I am moving my 5 gallon QT tank and my 5 gallon shrimp tank to near ground level onto stands that will house my 20 gallon long and 10 gallon on the upper shelves of the stands. At near ground level it will not be possible to siphon water. Can anybody recommend a small pump that I can use to evacuate water from these two tanks? I can obviously be a very simple pump. Thanks.

 

[MaloK]

Any pump that can bring water with a good speed a couple inches over the surface will automatically be pulled over the other end by gravity until both sides becomes level, so gravity influence small pumps a lot. and mainly the length of the drop after the apex has been reached is the most influencing factor.

So a pump with a 10 feet lift can be really overwhelming.

I would go with something that is pretty mellow yellow compared to the "whole thing"...

From floor to floor 20 gph would be good for me... If you're fast paced 80 GPH. But... it's still fast, at 20 gph in a 55. imagine smaller.

The smallest pumps can be perfect. It depends on how high the water has to go above the surface and how long it can drop after.

 

[gwand]

Thanks. Amazon has several fitting those specifications for pretty inexpensive.

 

[Colin_T]

I have had tanks 4 inches above the floor and they can be gravel cleaned and drained into buckets. The water flow slows down as the water level in the tank drops but you can normally drain half the tank without too many issues.

If you connect the gravel cleaner to a garden hose, you can run the hose out the door onto the lawn and that is usually lower than the house and will allow you to drain the tank too.