A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Harbor Freight Pump Warning

I have just experienced a catastrophic failure of my Harbor Freight pump. The pump failed and released a huge amount of toxic oil which fouled and ruined my entire system. I looked it up on the internet and apparently this is pretty common for these pumps. I now have to start over, all the pipes are ruined and the beds and media are toast.

Be warned you get what you pay for, although this pump was 80.00 and I bought the warranty because this is the 5th pump that I have had trouble with.

Lesson learned. I will buy a better one this time and hope for the best.

The gravel will go in my greenhouse as a flooring and the rest will have to be used for another purpose.

SAD :(

I had plans for an upgrade so I guess this will put some fire under my bum to get started.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Fishy McFisherson on January 30, 2014 at 10:56am

Major bummer. Sorry for your loss.

Permalink Reply by Janet Little on January 30, 2014 at 11:05am

Thanks, but I am exited about my new wood system I am designing. Luckily I have some of my Tilapia babies in the garage in tanks keeping warm.

Permalink Reply by Jeremy Liebscher on January 30, 2014 at 11:06am

Thanks for the warning. sorry to hear.

Permalink Reply by Janet Little on January 30, 2014 at 11:08am

Thanks,

I should have added, anyone know of a reliable pump to buy?

Permalink Reply by Fishy McFisherson on January 30, 2014 at 11:12am

What is your GPH and ft of head?

Permalink Reply by Fishy McFisherson on January 30, 2014 at 11:21am

I've had very good luck with the Danner Mag-Drive pumps, they are fairly quiet, can be used submerged or externally, and are epoxy (not oil) filled so you never have to worry about a leak again. Not the cheapest pumps, but cheap insurance and money well spent in my opinion. I've had two pumps (separate systems) running nearly nonstop for 2 years without fault.

Permalink Reply by Jessica Johnson on January 30, 2014 at 12:04pm

I have a Danner MD5 and couldnt be happier with it. I buy mine thru aquaticeco.com because they stand behind their products 100% and they know aquatics :) Amazon and eBay have them too. Compared to the $80 you spent at Harbor Freight the Danner pumps are a steal :)

I am sorry about your system, we spend so much time on them it's horrible to see someone loose the whole thing. Good luck with rebuilding!

Permalink Reply by Paul Trudeau on January 30, 2014 at 1:38pm

ohhh! bumMER, Janet! Hang in there and thanks for the warning to others. I've been using Rio pumps, no problems.

Permalink Reply by Bob Campbell on January 30, 2014 at 3:58pm

The can be removed by skimming. I too have had this happen and it did not kill my fish. It is called transformer oil and it probably does not contain PCB as those were banned back it the 1970's.

The oil is most likely an ester which is not toxic to fish and it will eventually biodegrade. Just clean it up an consider an airlift pump or oil free pump.

Permalink Reply by Fishy McFisherson on January 31, 2014 at 8:49pm

I was looking on craigslist for something else and found THIS PUMP for sale. I don't know what your GPH requirement is, but if this is too large, you can always divert the extra flow back to the fish tank for additional aeration. If you're not interested, I may buy it as a backup.

Permalink Reply by Bob Campbell on February 1, 2014 at 1:35am

The pump Fishy recommended is a great pump and the price is spectacular, but 1200 GPH is a lot of water and so is 110W.

I just finished building a bioponic system - a 47"x160" Earthan Bed garden with a Danner Model 5 utility pump. I agree with Jessica Johnson these are great pumps. At 30 cents per KWH. Even the Model 5 will cost about a penny per hour.

So with energy in mind I'm also building another bioponic 47"x160" Earthan Bed garden that uses an 8W General Hydroponics pump to move the water using with an air lift pump . This air pump is extremely quite as well as economical to run, It's also one of the few air pumps that offers rebuild kits.

Bioponic systems are less complicated and less expensive as there are no fish to feed or look after. The cost of fish food and pumping large amounts of water really should be weighed against the benefits of raising fish.

This is why my aquaponics garden also uses a 200 lpm EcoPlus 7 air pump running at 93W and air lift pump to move water. Air lifts are my first choice.

Permalink Reply by Janet Little on February 3, 2014 at 10:11am

Thanks everyone, I was using a large pump 1600 GPM to accommodate the strawberry towers but they are too tough to deal with in the heat of the summer so I am removing them. My next system will have 2, 3 by 8 wooden gravel beds and 2, 4 by 6 raft beds with 2 sumps made from the left over IBCs and an IBC fish tank so I will have to figure it out again.

I do like the idea of using the air lift pump but my engineering skills are very low.

I am getting started now with the system because my baby tilapia in the garage have started breeding and are growing too fast and my neighbor gave me some crawfish which prefer to eat each other so I need to get them all outdoors.

Thanks Fishy for the link to the pump on Craigslist I will call today and see if it is still available. Otherwise I will look at the other pumps that have been recommended.

Bob Campbell said:

The pump Fishy recommended is a great pump and the price is spectacular, but 1200 GPH is a lot of water and so is 110W.

I just finished building a bioponic system - a 47"x160" Earthan Bed garden with a Danner Model 5 utility pump. I agree with Jessica Johnson these are great pumps. At 30 cents per KWH. Even the Model 5 will cost about a penny per hour.

So with energy in mind I'm also building another bioponic 47"x160" Earthan Bed garden that uses an 8W General Hydroponics pump to move the water using with an air lift pump . This air pump is extremely quite as well as economical to run, It's also one of the few air pumps that offers rebuild kits.

Bioponic systems are less complicated and less expensive as there are no fish to feed or look after. The cost of fish food and pumping large amounts of water really should be weighed against the benefits of raising fish.

This is why my aquaponics garden also uses a 200 lpm EcoPlus 7 air pump running at 93W and air lift pump to move water. Air lifts are my first choice.