A few questions about return pumps, skimmers, and GPH

[mrsixstrings12]

Hello everyone. The journey in tearing my 120g down at my parent's house and moving it to my home has been quite a process. It's been up and running for 2 and a half weeks now and looks great! I have a question when it comes to my return pump, as well as a question about gallons per hour through the sump in relation to the skimmer. I had an aha! moment today and thought I should tee off my main line for my GFO/Carbon reactor to eliminate the need of that pump. I have a tee that's currently closed off to run to my refugium once I get it finished.

My return pump is the Waveline DC10000. It has to pump UP approximately 12 foot and also a horizontal run of about 14 foot. I currently have it set to just below half power. Referring to a performance chart I found of the pump, and the old eye-crometer, I'd guess I'm getting around 200gph of circulation. According to marine depot, my skimmer draws about 195gph. I'd turn the pump up more but I have to fiddle around with my drains because they get noisey if its up more.

My question about my return pump is, with the pump already dealing with the height it needs to pump from the basement, is it safe to go ahead and tee off for the refugium and reactor?

As far as gallons per hour through the sump, what's everyone's opinion? Should I want as much as possible no matter what? Should I get close to my skimmer's gph? *skimmer is a Reef Octopus in-sump skimmer*

 

[tinfoilsoldier]

I think you would have a really hard time finding balance of flow with such a tall head height and then having a device running at 0 head height tapping into the same system. I'm sure it's safe but you will want a gate valve instead of a ball valve to give your more finesse at the "mostly closed" levels.

Turnover is something you will never find consensus on. Lots of people say 10x an hour, but that might be for full tank circulation instead of just sump circulation levels.

Personally I only have 3-4x tank volume in sump circulation on my system at home and enough in-tank circulation to be well more than 10x with closed loop and power heads.

 

[ca1ore]

There really is no correlation between return GPH and skimmer processing. If anyone tells you there is, ask them to explain why. They won't be able to, not in a way that actually makes any sense. As long as you have enough flow to effect proper surface skimming in the display and have even heating you're good.