Self-primer ideal for sea water at Daydream

A seawater pump was needed at Daydream Island to pump filtered sea water to the Living Reef on the North Side of the Daydream Island Resort. They needed a flow rate of 180 m³/h, and wanted this delivered by both pumps in a dual pump arrangement.

To do this with submersible pumps would have required the construction of a ‘wet well’ with lifting apparatus, and to do it with standard centrifugal pumps would have meant the construction of a dry well.

Self-priming pumps were considered, because they could be installed relatively inexpensively when compared with the other options. Because of the tropical temperature sea water to be pumped, the materials of construction of the pump needed to be corrosion resistant.

Gorman-Rupp self-priming centrifugal pumps were offered in CD4MCu construction. CD4MCu is a duplex stainless steel that is more corrosion resistant than 316 ‘marine grade’ stainless steel and is quite a bit harder, making it suitable for pumping sand if it gets into the system.

Being self-priming, and more importantly, a ‘guaranteed’ re-priming pump, the pump assembly was able to be mounted high above the sea water, with only a simple concrete slab needed to mount the pumps, keeping the installation simple.

A 100 mm pump was used for the application, but pumps are available in sizes from 50 to 250 mm and in materials of construction to suit a wide range of applications. The pump will pass a large solid (to 75 mm diameter), and has a large inspection cover-plate for operators to gain access to the pump internals for maintenance.