Need help with pumps and plumbing

[Ltlduc]

I am building a 180G Reef tank. The tank is on the 2nd floor of a 2 story house. The garage is directly below. I am bracing the floor with 4x12 beams to hold the weight. I have a 55G that I am going to use for a sump. The sump is going in the garage on a bench 4' off of the ground. I have not really picked a height for the tank yet but lets say 6' to the top of the tank for argument sake. I have a few questions. 1- I don't really understand a closed loop system. 2- I was going to use 2-3/4" bulkheads for supply and 2- 1 1/2" for the return. Is this even close? My sump is going to be on the bottom floor so I am going to have about 20-25' of total head. 12' vertical and 10' horizontal. I would like to have 2 pumps in case 1 fails. All of the pumps I have looked at say only 15' head max. I do a lot of work with a pool company and can get pond or jacuzzi pumps for free. Will they not work?
I have looked through the forums and have not really seen my application. I am an electrician, not a plumber as you can tell. Any help would be great. Thanks.

 

[Shayn]

wow sounds like a big job, okay most of the time tanks come standard with 3/4 returns and 1" drains, but if u go custom anything is possible, really what u need to do is figure roughly your total back pressure, the verticle head counts as well as horazontial head, every 45 counts 5" more of head so a 90 will really count, also as ive done my pump has 1 1/2 intake and return plumbing i have made a manifold and have 4 -3 /4 returns if u take a pump with a 1 1/2 return and force that water thru 3/4 u get even more head loss its called friction headloss, also a skimmer driven off a pump adds like 2.31 feet of head per every psi required for the venturi, sequence pumps homepage has a nice headloss calculator, once you know what your dealin with then you can match a pump from sounds of your system you are gonna need a pump with 50 feet of head, like a manta ray pump, i use a sequence baracuda on a 140 and im just pumping from sump right below tank , and it isnt powerful enough, also figure out what you tank will flow oceanic overflows are rated at 750 per drain, im useing my returns as drains too, my returns are plunbed over back side now, my system has roughly16 feet of head with current configuration, but im ruunning 4 returns , one thru a chiller, one thru a heater, a large skimmer, 3 filter cylinders, and the sequence baracuda is only megerly flowing 2000 gallons thru those 4 returns wich i split to even further take the powerhead floww away now my returns canpoint directly at corrals, as far as useing second pump running two smaller pumps sequencal would be nicer, redundance, more exspencive, 2 pumps $, more electricty, i use one but have a second larger pump comin a hammer head, you should consider sequence reef flo pumps very energy efficent, nice flow, lowww heat transfer, a lota pumps effect temp, hope these tid bits help

 

[Ltlduc]

Thanks. It looks like I need to do some math. This is going to be a fun project. I'm sure I will be asking more Questions in the future.

 

[Shayn]

hehe sequence will even figure your head loss for you if u e-mail them a acurate configuration of your plumbing in feet, both horazontal and verticle, the diameter of plumbing, # and type of fittings, ect, be glad to help anyway i can, better to learn from others mistakes, so you avoid them al together, oh and dont forget backflows i learned the hard way about useing them