How much flow through your sump?

[sean obergfell]

Hello all,
I have two return pumps on my 150 gallon reef. One is connected to a Sea Swirl and the other is just a return hole.
I am thinking of turning the one (return hole) off and turning it into a closed loop with a second Sea Swirl....

which means much slower return through sump and more flow in display tank.

What do you pros think?

Thanks

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

What's the gph rating on the two pumps? What do you have in the sump? What's the layout like (baffles?)

Having two return pumps is nice from a redundancy perspective.

 

[Flanders]

also how big is the sump, and is your overflow a full siphon or is there air mixing going on? and how many gph is your skimmer pump rated for, do you have any macro/dsb in sump? tell us more.

 

[RoscoPColtrane]

You may get different opinions but I prefer a lower flow through my sump... less noise, less heat, less electric and more reaction time with your skimmer. I have approximately 300-400gph going through the sump on my 120gal.
You should take into consideration the turn over of your skimmer pump and also your sump design.

 

[sean obergfell]

Thank you for all the interest....
the sump is a basement sump..150 gallon rubbermaid ..ASM G4, live rock, carbon and GFO reactors....150 Two little fishes, have a cheato chamber but at the moment not enough nutrients to keep it growing...return pumps are Mag 24 goes to the 3/4 Sea Swirl.(up 10' horizontal 4') and the second return pump is a Mag 18 (up 10')
1500 gph glass holes box with 2 1.5" return hoses.

 

[sean obergfell]

What i want is a closed loop 1" sea swirl, and that would take my Mag 18 out of the sump. then I will have 2 Sea Swirls with greatly increased flow.

 

[Flanders]

yeah, I would probably do that if I were you but you may find that you'll need a powerhead in the sump to keep flow over your chaeto. that is a pretty big sump.

 

[cardiffgiant]

I have about 800GPH through my sump. Mine is a 75 gallon sump for my 90 gallon display.

Just an observation, a mag24 and a mag18 are a lot of wattage and quite a bit of head loss. You could probably reduce your electric by half by switching to an external pressure rated pump, and actually increase your flow.

 

[sean obergfell]

Cardiffgiant....any thoughts on a solid pump....that would get 900GHP after all the head loss to my Sea Swirl?

 

[sean obergfell]

Any thought on a solid exterior pump that would allow 1100 GPH after head loss to my Sea Swirl?

 

[sean obergfell]

sorry almost a double post....
I was thinking of 1100 not 900 gph after head loss

 

[cardiffgiant]

I've only used blueline pumps and I've been really happy with them. Quiet and reliable. A blueline 70bHD should get you around 1100+ with 10' of head and 1.5" plumbing. I think that pump is about 250+ watts. I have the 55HD, which gets about 800ghp at 14' head with 1.5" plumbing. That one is about 180 watts.

 

[Lavoisier]

Blueline is a good pump. I would also recomment the Reeflo Dart.