PVC Drainline Size

[CHOX]

Hey guys, I'm building a 29 gallon reef with an 800 gph bean animal over hole. The drainage bulkheads are 1/2 inch. Is that an appropriate PVC Size to use for my aquarium, or do I need to size up? 1/2 looks so small to me...but I don't know anything about PVC!

 

[thegrun]

How much water do you plan on running through your sump? A 1/2" pvc pipe will drain around 200 GPH which normally would be fine for your tank (6 turn overs per hour). Up-sizing to 3/4" would give you plenty of flow if you wanted to run more water through the sump.

 

[CHOX]

Honestly, I'm not sure. I'm only running a 10 gallon sump due to a lack of space in my stand. I just figured it would be 800 gph because that was the size of the overflow.

http://modularmarine.com/collection...box-bulkhead-mounted-aquarium-surface-skimmer

I've always just run with flex PVC because while I've tried to follow along with plumbing, I've never been able to make sense of it, and have never asked much about it because its kinda embarrassing.