Any suggestions please.

[The_jaydog]

I am in the process of reviving my 55g aquarium. To make a long story short it crashed about a year ago and I wasn't able to do anything to help it. Frustrated, I gave up on it and neglected it. I didn't have time or money to do anything about it. As everyone knows when something goes wrong it cascades into bigger problems. Luckily, a good friend of mine was setting a tank up and was able to take my fish, inverts, and some corals. At least nobody had to die [emoji4]

Well, I'm working on it again with new ideas and a lot more knowledge under my belt. I am planning on having my 55g display in my dining room with my sump/refuge separate but in my basement. To do this I will obviously need to plumb it through the floor. Before I drill holes though I want to make sure my figures are all correct.

Since I'm going to have about 10 feet of head I decided to go with a Pan World 100px-x for my return pump. As you know this has a 1 inch output. Unfortunately my tank is not drilled and I'm afraid to drill it to be quite honest. I like the updated version of the pvc overflow that "the king of diy" describes on YouTube.

In your opinion, will I be okay to use a 1 1/2 drain to my sump and a 1 inch return? I know that pipe volumes very quite a bit between gravity and pressurized. I'm just afraid the 1 1/2 won't be able to keep up and I will have to restrict my pump too much.

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

Make a rectangular hole for an air vent, this will accommodate it all in 1 hole & can be covered if you ever move.
A 100px-x pump is too much for a 55 even from the basement,
If possible put the sump up on a sturdy bench reducing head & not having to get on your knees for maintenance & cleaning.
A 1" return is all you need. 1-1/2" is more than enough for the drain.
Get a Lifereef overflow box and worry not, but it will be 1" single or dual drain.

 

[The_jaydog]

Okay. Thank you so much for your help. The reason I went with the 100px-x is because I wanted to make sure I was turning the water over frequently enough. I read somewhere on RC that it should be 6 to 10 times per hour. My sump is going to be approx 10 feet from the pump to the top of the display in the dining room. I built a stand for the sump and mounted the pump right next to it. Using the calculator on RC it came out to be about 440 gph with the unions, gate valves, and what not. Is this still to much?

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

JD, the new thinking is the pump should be sized for a slower turnover in the sump & using power heads inside the tank for flow.
BUT - as you know there is more than 1 way to run a reef tank.
Put a valve on the output of the pump so you can dial it down if necessary.

 

[The_jaydog]

Okay I definitely will Vinny. I have been out of the marine loop for a couple years now and I didn't realize the thought on turnover had changed. I guess I plugged the numbers into the calculator and tried to hit close to the 60% to 100% per hour line. I also decided to run my sump and refugium separately. The last time I had my tank running it was all together. I realized that the refugium needed to be significantly slower than the sump.
Again, thank you so much for your help.