Basement sump / equipment room, or below tank, for large reef?

[stingythingy45]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15698750#post15698750 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by nsamouroux
Stingy, the Mak 4 is 1190 gph at under 5' of head pressure from what I can see, unless I'm looking at the wrong pump of course. I have a PCX-40 on my ETSS skimmer, which should be similar. How much water could the thing be pushing at 14' like in your setup? I would imagine that even being pressure rated (didn't realize their shutoff was 22', nice pumps for beckett / downdraft skimmers!) it would only be around 500gph at that point?

I was worried about the Ampmaster as well since I had heard bad things about Dolphin pumps. Everything I've read in the last couple days shows that the Aquasea pumps were horrendous for seal failure / leaks, but I haven't been able to find any bad reviews on the Ampmaster line yet. I've read a few reviews on reef site forums that the ampmaster pumps have been running for years with little or no maintenance, so I'm not as nervous about it at this point. I would greatly prefer a Reeflo pump, but this dolphin is almost new for an unbeatable price

It works very well for my tank.
But you would probably want a Mak 5.

 

[nsamouroux]

Just brought home my "new" return pump, which was a major hurdle in making a basement fish room feasible for a tank this size... Wow. This thing can move some SERIOUS water, and it's dead silent, barely even any vibration! I don't quite believe the wattage claims that the manufacturer has listed for it, so I'm going to borrow a kill-a-watt and check for myself one of these days... I don't see how something this huge can use less power than a pump 1/3 it's size (a Mag-drive I had laying around)... I think I'm going to have to throttle it back or split the return to feed some other equipment to stay under my 2,500 gph goal for maximum water flow through the overflows!

 

[mnchartier]

nsamouroux - What pump is that?

 

[nsamouroux]

Dolphin Ampmaster ES-5500. 5500gph at 5' of head (6500ish at 0', good closed loop pump!) and supposed to only draw 290 watts. It pushes more water than the Reeflo hammerheads (5800gph @ 0') at 2/3 the energy cost, about the same as a Hammerhead gold (within a couple watts), and it's literally dead silent. I couldn't even hear it running from 6' away when I tested it. I'll have 10' of vertical head pressure to the top of my tank, so this should be in the vicinity of 3000-3500 gph. I'll have to split the return over to a refugium, or perhaps to my skimmer but I'm not sure if the split flow can push the ETSS downdraft properly... I might just valve it back and save even more power

The pump body is completely seperated from the wet end, and is supposed to transfer almost zero heat into the water. I've heard bad things about the seals on the older ampmasters and particularly the Aquasea line, but this one has the marine seals on it and is supposed to be built specifically for saltwater use. I might end up using it as a closed loop pump, but I hadn't planned on drilling the tank further (I plan on using large Koralia magnum powerheads for more varied flow options and energy savings).

 

[FishTruck]

Nice.

You will be glad for the remote sump.

The under-tank storage is nice to have open for nets, long-handled scrapers, fish food, TOWELS, etc...

 

[nsamouroux]

I'll just need to pick up a 100 or 150 gallon rubbermaid now (don't really need a 300g... yet...) to use as a sump. I've got my old 100 gallon acrylic tank that I might convert to a sump instead, but that's a lot of hassle. I might take that route instead of the stock tank since I'll have such a high flow through the sump because I might need a bunch of bubble-traps before the return pump. After looking at the 50 gallon Rubbermaid stock tanks, they're almost the perfect size / dimension for me to use as a refugium on this system, which will sit a foot or two above the top of the sump and gravity-drain back into the area near the return pump. I'll probably split the return line to feed the refugium at about 400gph, or perhaps just use a smaller Quiet One or Mag drive pump that I've got sitting around.