Pump In Sump question

B

bottyfish

New member
Hi Im fairly new to the hobby.

I dont have my tank set up yet because my sump is not finished yet.

My tanks is 75g

and the sump im making is 35g

45x12x18

It will contain a skimmer in the left side which which will be about 12inches and then three baffles taking up 3 inches.

The next section is the return and on the far right is my refugium.

I want my refugium to be as big as possible, so my question is how many inches should I allocate for the return pump.

It is a mag12 and my baffels are 12 inches high.

The mag has to pump 4ft up and the overflow is 1.5inches.





Any help or advice would be greatly appreaciated
 
[welcome]

the mag 12 is way to big for a 75 gal. return pump IMO. you only want at max 750 gph foing through your sump.

as for how big the return area should be depends on if your gonna have a auto top off or are you gonna manually top off.

manually = bigger area
ATO = smaller area.
 
hmm.

So your saying 10x flow and nothign more through my sump is optimal?

After the head loss the mag12 will push about 1000gph into my DT. Which is about 13x the tank.

I can control it by splitting it and actually returning it back into the return area.

I will control the flow going thorugh the refug becuase the baffel i will put there will be higher than the bubble trap. It will be controlled by a ballvalve split from the water comming from the DT.

But I was thinking 10x10x12. or 12x10x12
 
its going to be very similiar to this



But without the first section because Im going to change that to a section in the corner for the pipe to drop into with LR rubble.

and not going to have the fug split anymore
 
"I can control it by splitting it and actually returning it back into the return area"

that would be your best bet. you want to base your flow off of what your skimmer can handle. to much flow and your skimmer and other filtration equipment looses their effecency.
 
Thanks for the help and welcomes so far, the faster I figure out how big my return the faster i can get my DT started, hehe.

Right now im cycling my QT.
 
I am cycling my QT to establish the bacteria culture in my Penguin biowheel filter. Normally I would just put the Penguin biowheel on an established DT so that the biowheel can establish its bacteria.

But i dont have my DT up yet. =)
 
I have a mag5 in my 20gal fuge to my 75 gallon tank. I even have it cranked down some. Mag12 does sound like overkill, but i guess if that's what you have :)
 
The most you would need is a 700GPH pump. Almost any brand will do. Catelina has worked for years for me. Also Odyssea is a good one.
 
According to my studies, the more flow in your DT the better.

http://www.reefcentral.com/calc/drain.php

has calculated that my 1.5 inch hole can handle 1200 gph.

Mag12 does 1200 but at 0 head loss.

After applying my 5ft head loss the mag12 will produce 1120 but less cuz its splitted into the fuge and phosphate reactor, plus the return at the top is split into two sections so the 90 angels reduce gph as well.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13017301#post13017301 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ChrisKirkland
The most you would need is a 700GPH pump. Almost any brand will do. Catelina has worked for years for me. Also Odyssea is a good one.
Click to expand...

I already have the mag12. But if its too much flow then i will divert some of it back into the return via pvc.

But I need some help calculating the volumn i need the section my return pump is going to be in so that it wont dry up.
 
Bottyfish, i divided my sump into three equal compartments. I have no problems or regrets. You can always throttle the return back to suit your needs via a ball valve. Did you read my earlier post "How are you introducing the bacteria in the QT?
 
Well I asked around and people said not to use LR or Sand and leave the QT bare.

So then I asked them the same question you are asking me.

Where does the bacteria come from?

They said bacteria comes from the air it will establish on its own.

So i put a cocktail shrimp in there and let it run with (my koralias for now) a heater and the HOB penguin. Its only been a week and my amm lvls are at 1.00ppm. 0 nitrites and 0 nitrates.

The reason I dont want to split the sump into three equal parts is because I want my refug to be as big as possible. This is because later on i would like to have a decent pod cultivation going for a manderine dragonite. (im also going to have two 10g tanks culturing pods on the side) But his is far far away after at least 8months of my tank being established.

I dont have an ATO but plan to make one later on. For now it will be manual top off. I will draw a line where my water lvl should be at optimal performance. When the line goes down i will top it off with RO/DI. and check with refractometer

Ya.. I did a lot of reading and a lot of research, like for 3 months before I spent any money. And when I did it was to buy three books to do more research. But im really anxious to get my tank going. So i really need help with this one...
 
if done manually I sugest making it at least 5 gal. that should leave enough water to cover the pump and to go a day before needing to top off.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13017476#post13017476 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bottyfish
I will draw a line where my water lvl should be at optimal performance. When the line goes down i will top it off with RO/DI.
Click to expand...

Good idea. I have done the same thing. I also turned my return pump off and let the water siphon back into the sump. This way i knew if i had a power failure, the sump would be able to handle the backflow. I had to adjust the line afew times.
 
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