FINALLY ! home owner and moved in. now its 150 time !

[AIR-FX]

ok i have a 150 gal tall-check(thanks victor) i built the stand-check(thanks RC members)........ over flow box-check(thanks keith).....40 gal breeder-check(thanks chris).....skimmer-check......set up a price and day with ARC for 100 gallons of reef ready saltwater and 4 bags of crush coral sand bed-check(thanks randy ARC). now all i have left to do is figure out my return pump........arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. wth is head loss?????
this is what i have right now in my 72gal....

return pump....quiet one-2200 =581gph
1 koralia 1050 = 1050 gph flow
1 koralia 550
1 maxi jet 900 =230gph

that adds up to 2411 gph.
my plumbing for syphon overflows are 1.25"(2 glass wholes,1 for emergency overflow)
i know i need more power. can i buy another pump say.....something that kicks 900or more ghr and run my other pump also? have 2 returns pumps? the sump is plenty big enough. my reasoning is money is tight due to other more important things that need to be done to the new house,but i have to move and transfer contents of my old tank into new asap ! its still running at my old apt.

is it bad to run 2 return pumps? $$ wise right now i could swing another smaller pump.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

congrats on becoming a homeowner!

congrats on becoming a homeowner!

THAT'S the most important part of this story- believe it or not!

wth is head loss?????

Simply put, Head loss is the resistance your pump is working against in order to get water back to the aquarium. You may or may not need another pump depending on head loss. Figure out what your drains can handle and your head loss. Your overflows have a max GPH and any pump that puts out more than your overflow can handle is a waste of electricity. If your pump is in the stand your QUIET ONE might be ok. If your pump is 20ft. below the aquarium in the basement you might need another pump. My suggestion: set up what you got and see how it all works.

head loss calculator

Now.. 4 bags of crushed coral.... REALLY?

 

[SkiFletch]

I'm with Gary, give it a shot and see what happens. I'm assuming you're running an under-tank sump. If you're running a basement sump, don't even bother, small-moderate sized pumps like you have won't stand a chance of pushing up that high. To more directly answer your question, there's nothing inherently "wrong" with running 2 return pumps. Running 2 pumps is a little electrically inefficient compared to 1 as you're introducing more moving parts. That said, it will still work if you've got the room for it and are willing to deal with the more complex plumbing required (you'd need each pump to be on a seperate return line). If the pump you have really does push 500gph AFTER head losses, it's not really necessary. A little over 3x flowrate of your tank volume is on the lower end for sumps, but can definitely work.

 

[RoscoPColtrane]

I agree with Mike and Gary, try the pump you have. I run a 600gph pump on my 120g and would not want any more.

 

[Bluephish13]

congrats!

IMO
I would not go crushed coral. If you are referring to Florida crushed coral, the very large grain stuff. It is more like seashells? IME it will trap a lot of detritus and not be not so nice(sharp) for the fish. I cant imagine this is what randy would give you, i am sure it is probably carib-sea something.

I use carib-sea DRY sugar grain mixed with some larger sea floor select. Not more than and inch deep. I use sand for a visual purpose only now, and pick up the filtration in other ways. Always many different ways to run a tank though.

 

[pascal32]

congrats man!

a good number to move from the sump is 3x to 5x the tank volume. the rest of turnover is done with the powerheads.

for 150 Gallon:
150 x 3 = 450GPH
150 x 5 - 750GPH

the goal is to be in the 450 to 750GPH range.

As Gary mentioned above there is resistance in the plumbing which takes away from the water flow. use the calculator here to figure out [about] how much flow you should get : http://www.reefcentral.com/index.php/head-loss-calculator

The quiet one 2200 is not listed. I checked the mags against the 2200 and for a ballpark use a mag 7 in the calculator and take the GPH result multiplied by .9 (mag 7 pushes a touch more)

with 3/4" return piping the mag7 is about 348 *.9 = 313 for the 2200
with 1" return piping the mag7 is about 395 *.9 = 355 for the 2200
with 1 1/4" return piping the mag7 is about 416 *.9 = 374 for the 2200

with these numbers I would personally move to the Quiet one 3000 minimum with 1 1/4" piping, or preferably the 400 at minimum with 1" piping

*** what overflow do you have - if you have a 750GPH the 4000 is going to be pushing the limits of the box.

quiet one comparison chart I just made:

feet 2200 mag5 mag7
0 594 500 84% 700 118%
1 563 450 80% 650 115%
2 528 415 79% 550 104%
3 493 380 77% 500 101%
4 455 310 68% 480 105%
5 410 250 61% 420 102%
6 361 180 50% 400 111%
7 308 125 41% 350 114%
8 258 80 31% 300 116%
9 188 45 24% 220 117%
10 96 20 21% 120 125%