drain line size and volume

[TriMax]

Folks

A question about drain line size. How much flow do I need for a 375g and a 300g tank on the same system? I will have lots of water in the drain lines and a 130g sump. I will also have LR in the tanks. So, maybe 600-750g of water. Do I need to send 10x that volume to a sump? If so, I need a 3.2 inch drain line and more linear overflow than I have. The RC drain calculator says that I can have 2300gph with a 2 inch drain line or with 2 -- 1.5 inch drain lines. That is 3 to almost 4 times 600-750g. Do I need that much?

What do you have going to your sump & therefore to your skimmer? How much flow is enough? How much is just overkill and not worth the cost. I will have a closed loop system for each tank. I will get some flow, but of course no sump and skimmer flow from the CL.

Lots of questions, I know, sorry.

Thanks

Eddie

 

[fishdoc11]

I prefer more (ie 10x or so) going through bthe sump but on larger tanks that hard. Kind of 2 schools of thought on it, some like more, lots of people just shoot for 3 to 5 x tank volume and do fine. It also depends on how much your skimmer can process and how much water you want to run through carbon etc...
You might try posting in the large tank forum.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=252
You should should be able to get lots of answers over there from people with experience moving more water than most of us have.
Chris

 

[imsqueak]

Just a thought, not sure if it would actually accomplish much but, what if you put like a mag9 in the last chamber returning 900gph back to the first chamber? Idea being if you cant run enough water thru the overflows, have some of the water make two passes before exiting.