OSC Clnr Aqua Lift Vacuum Pump

September 01, 2025 The old pump is failing to keep the siphon working so its time for a new pump. It still pumps air but not quite enough to lift the water to siphon properly. I heard that the old Toms Aqua Lift would last many years. But it seems the new design for me lasts 2.5 years. This seems to be the only choice of what is for offer. March 30, 2023 I built a siphon to equalize the water levels between 3 * 74 gallon tanks. This pump is pulling any air from the highest point of the siphon and dumping it back into the tank via a drip tube to make water movement visible. Seems to be quite effective and moves more water than I thought it would from reading other reviews. We shall see if it has the famed years long durability of the Tom Aqualifter brand. After almost a month I can add that it pumps air much more rapidly than water so its good for emptying the air space from a siphon. As a lift pump, its not very good. Can barely lift water perhaps a foot and very slowly. Nice to meter downwards as in mixing aquarium water with a new bag of fish. But no good for lifting. Your experience may be different.

Perfect buy still work today

Most of the critical reviews I read had to do with longevity. Since it has only been in use for a couple weeks, I can't comment on that. So far it has maintained the siphon in my CPR CS150 Overflow without issue.

I was having problems with my power head not keeping up with my over flow I bought this and now it like butter. No matter what it keeps the vacuum on my over flow without any issues

The last couple half dozen pumps I have used have been quite noisy. This little dawg solved most that problem and runs two larger bubble stones. One in the tank and another down in the large trickle filter (really helps get air interchange going down there). I did put it in the lower tank cabinet and sat it on a foam pad and it quieted down the pump noise from very irritating to barely noticeable at all.

These are going to fail. Period. When they do and you're overflow loses vacuum bad things are gong to happen. I put together a redundancy solution using parts sourced right here on Amazon. Check out the video.

These are *not* the same as Aqualifters. I replaced a decade old Toms pump with one of these when I found out that Toms service parts are unavailable. This pump cost twice as much, and at the three month mark is already showing signs of diaphragm failure. Works great for the time it works, but $50 for 3 months of service is not acceptable

Just buy it and save yourself the frustration. I’m assuming you’ve got a fish tank, and you’re sick of manually fixing your siphon and are debating if you really need a lift pump? The answer is yes, yes you do. I’ve had it running for four months and haven’t had to fix my siphon once, and I had been fixing it weekly. It’s so worth it not to deal with that!

I use this as a recirculation pump cooling a small saw. It works perfectly. It’s a shame they are incredibly difficult to come by. It’s perfect because it’s non-submersible. My coolant well is too shallow to accommodate a submersible pump.