plumbing and pump recommendations for 37g?

[amheck]

Hey gang,

I'm just in the planning stages of my new Oceanic 37g cube tank. My initial thoughts are now to have the tank drilled with 3 holes. One for the overflow (on the bottom), and 2 for the returns.

I was thinking about a 3-sided internal overflow box like this:
http://www.wetdryfilter.com/internal_overflow_boxes.htm

And then having the overflow run to a small 10-15g sump. And then have a return pump hooked up with a 2-way oceans motions device, and then each of those outlets go back up to the tank via a lockline.

I'm interested in a quiet and efficient pump. I've heard good things about the Eheim 1262's. Would this be a good pump for this application? With the ocean motion device, would that give me enough flow to the main tank? Also, would I need another pump to drive a skimmer? I don't quite know if I can just use 1 pump for both the skimmer and return, or not.

Any advice, comments, and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks!
Aaron

 

[sjm817]

1262 is way too bigfor a 37G/10-15G sump. A 1250 would be a better bet.

 

[amheck]

Thanks. I didn't know if the Ocean Motions took a lot of the flow away from the setup. I want some good flow in the tank, but obviously not too much.

The the Eheim the best choice for me? I don't mind spending a little extra $$ to get less noise and less heat.

 

[sjm817]

The OM doesn't take away any flow. You may be thinking of the SCWD which does. You dont want a lot of flow from the return pump. Use powerheads or closed loop for display flow. The 1250 would be good and extremely quiet for the return.

 

[amheck]

Thanks again for the info. Yeah, I guess I knew that about the SCWD, but figured all similar devices were the same (as far as reducing flow).

I'm really trying to get rid of all of the power heads in the tank, and I was also trying to get all of the needed flow in the main tank via the return pump. Is this possible in a smaller tank like this, or is there really no way around a closed loop?

 

[sjm817]

You cant have the flow of a 1262 screaming through a 10 - 15G sump. You will have mircrobubble problems among many others. People have used them in setups 3x what you have and they were too big. A 1250 is pushing it in that setup.

 

[amheck]

Bump for the night crowd.

 

[amheck]

bump for the morning crowd

 

[Peabody]

I run a mag7 through a seaswirl for my return, but the real secret weapon is my SEIO 1100. That just churns the water throughout the tank and my corals LOVE it

 

[skyfireblaze]

And good moring to you too Aaron

I agree that something along the lines of a 1250 is about all you want, even need, for your sump return. I spent a lot of time looking into the return pump options for my own 37g. The 1250 is what I settled on. Of course, I haven't got it set up yet as I'm still waiting on finishing up my sump (sketch in my gallery if you're interested). Just need to silicone in the baffles (cut them out last night) and then glue up some pvc. Hopefully it won't be too much longer until I can offer a more experienced response. Of course, I've been planning the sump out since November ...

Eventually I'll add in a CL most likely using a OM Squirt (trying to talk myself out of the Super Squirt Compact) to add in some more flow. But the 1250 is all I want going through my sump.

What kind of skimmer are you considering? After researching my options for a very long time, I finally decided that I wanted a skimmer that I could gravity feed so I wouldn't need to have any additional pumps in the system. It's best to have the skimmer take the dirtiest water possible, either through a gravity feed or a pump sending water as directly from your overflow as possible. Feeding your skimmer with your return pump doesn't do this (at least not as efficiently).

 

[amheck]

Peabody, I have a Seio 820 now and do love the flow, but its just do dang big.

Jon, also thanks for the reply and good afternoon to you. A 37g owner - perfect.

I guess I was just trying to run the return and the water tank movement on one pump, but that does not seem like the way to go. So I'll stick with the smaller Eheim and just look into the closed loops a little more.

What pump are you using for the closed loop? Seems like the darts are pretty popular. I was just trying to keep down the number of pumps for heat and noise issues.

So you bring up a good point. Maybe a gravity fed skimmer is a good option here. I don't know...I was thinking about maybe one of the smaller ASM's or something like that. The new Octopus's seem to be getting talked about here a lot, too. What skimmer were you considering? We don't need something too big, for just the 37g, so that's nice.

Aaron

 

[Peabody]

I actually run my seio in the somewhat unothdox vertical position like they show on the box, as opposed to the tunze stream way most people choose. I have it flush against my overflow box and it's totally inconspicous actually (nozzle aimed diagonally across the tank). But man does it kick around the water in the tank!

 

[skyfireblaze]

I'm actually planning on using something along the lines of an Eheim 1260 or 1262 for the CL. That get's you close to 20X-25X turnover with just the CL. I've got two MJ1200's in my 37g right now and still have a bit of trouble with sand blowing around, so whatever I do for a CL, it will have to have relatively large outputs into the tank (big area = low velocity).

When I first started looking at CL's I too was considering a Dart. Even though it is a good, quiet pump, I decided that it was way too much flow for the tank without throttling it back ( > 3,000 gph why?). Also, the energy usage is okay, but still too much. Yeah, the watts do drop as you increase head and decrease flow rate, but don't drop below 100W even as you go to 0 flow. The Eheim 1262's are listed at about 85W, right? IMO the Dart is great for a > 3,000 gph pump, in all areas. But I didn't need it for my little tank.

As far as skimmers go, I may or may not be a good role model. I have a Deltec AP600 waiting to be installed. Yeah, it's a bit bigger than you'd think a 37g (rated for 130g-200g ) should need, but I'm not a big believer in overskimming. My skimmer search was focused on finding one that I could gravity feed (#1 requirement), low power usage, a recirculating design, one with a good reputation (only bad things you usually hear about Deltec's have to do with the price), and a company with good customer service. The skimmer's footprint was also a big factor as I wanted it to fit in my sump. Everything's got to fit either under or behind the tank.

Anyways, all I can say is Deltec won out in my decision making. I also considered H&S and ER skimmers.

...

Peabody - got pics of your 37g and Seio ? Love to see what you've got ...

 

[amheck]

Yeah, so double eheim's. That would work. I didn't know the dart was so big with so much flow. I have the Southdown sand and also have to worry about sand blowing around.

As soon as the search function works again, I'll look into gravity fed skimmers. The Deltecs are nice, but over my budget.

Thanks for the tips.

Aaron

 

[skyfireblaze]

Yeah, I understand budgets. When my Hobby Experience says "Since June 2004", it should state "Been saving for, planning, and now finally putting together my 37g since June 2004". I had to save for the better part of a year to afford the Deltec. Tax returns helped a bit, too. Check and see if you can gravity feed a ER or ASM skimmer. I'm pretty sure that you can do so with their recirculating models, but I think that at the time I was researching it they didn't recommend it. That may have just pertained to their regular style.

Of course, if gravity feeding isn't an option (either through plumbing, sump, or budget limitations), then using a small skimmer section in your sump isn't a bad idea either. The key is to get as much "raw" water into the skimmer as possible. I think you could still do pretty good with a non-recirculating needlewheel - just do your research and do your best to purchase a quality product.

I'm interested to see what other CL pumps are suggested to you too ... I am a big Eheim fan, though.

 

[asmujica]

Jon

Did you end u drilling the tank? Was the bottom glass tempered?

 

[skyfireblaze]

The tank is not drilled -- and won't be, at least until I tear this one down to set up a new one in its place. Then I might get it drilled.

However, the bottom of the tank has a very obvious sticker on it indicating that the bottom is tempered. If I ever drill it, I'll drill it on the back panel.