Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My mom has offered me a fully rebuilt 120Volt Haywood In-ground pool pump for free. This was previously connected to a 90 square foot Diatomaceous earth swimming pool filter connected to a 30,000 gallon in-ground pool.

I would like to use it, but I would estimate it will move around 3,000+ gallons per hour, give or take. This seems grossly oversized for my 1,000 gallon system.

Question: If I connect the pump to a 55 Gallon Barrel and return 80% of the pumped water back to the barrel, should/would this be okay? I acknowledge that running the barrel dry will kill the pump pretty quickly. Perhaps I could use the extra flow for a freshwater protein skimmer?

I have a 1-1/2 hp pump from my 25'x4' above ground pool. which is <15,000 gallons. I would think your pump would be over 2 HP which would add at least $50 per month to your utility bill. My 1-1/2 hp pump has 1-1/2" pipe outlet. I would see if you could swap it for something much smaller probably no bigger than 1/4 hp.

"If it's free - pick it up" and keep it as a spare pump.
I would be concerned (as BRB) as to what the running cost would be 24/7 (or part thereof)

I couldn't help but comment after seeing "]"If it's free - pick it up"
I have been running a 28.000gal pump for 2 1/2 years with no problem
It only runs 3 min an hour so total running cost is $40 to $50 a year [used to be $30 but with power increase]
i also have 2 other pumps for different jobs running at different times
Another thing when building a system remember[ KISS keep it simple stupid ] because if it can go wrong it probably will

+1.....obviously, if you only need to run it for some minutes, that's cost efficient.

+1.....K I S S = 'Murphy's Law" : EVERYTHING THAT CAN GO WRONG - WILL".

By "Keeping It Simple" you can eliminate a lot of problems

Elizabeth, Food and Fish has the experience... use it. My comment was based on swimming pool continous useage of the pump with backpressure of a filter. Plus I now have a pump for my big system

I use a pool pump as an aglae filter and for adding o2 quickly. Without a sandfilter to push through it moves a lot of water. If I get a spare tank later I was going to use it to fill the tank and let it slowly drain back into the system.