Silence 1073.020

[wolf pup]

I'm hoping I haven't made a mistake...I am building a 35 gal with a 12 gal sump and bought a 1073.020 to serve as a return. There will be a little refugium in the sump so I was going to tap some of the return flow through there. However, after noticing some comments about head loss have I gone and bought too small a pump? Opinions?

 

[rvitko]

It will do about 250-300gph for the average 4-5ft return height, but that is nearly 10 time tank turnover and more than enough, your flow should not be from the return pump, you need a slow enough flow for the skimmer and filtration to process the water.

 

[wolf pup]

Perfect - thanks that was what I was going for, I just became paranoid.

 

[Ocean Mang]

Roger, when it is doing that 250-300, the flow adjustment will still bring it down even more right with no negative affects on the pump or additional heat to the water right? I may want to tweak it down to just over 100gph on my 54 corner through a 10 gallon sump.

 

[rvitko]

There will be slightly more heat build up around the impeller so calcium will build up faster but the wattage drops as the flow is restricted and besides taking a few weeks off how long it can go without cleaning, it will do no harm and generally run cooler, it is just more heat inside the impeller area itself.

 

[Ocean Mang]

Thanks for the info, so for my conditions, how often should I take it out and clean it?

 

[rvitko]

The biggest factors are the levels of Calcium, the Magnesium level and KH, assuming relatively normal levels of 400 ppm Ca 1300ppm Mg and a KH of 10-12 this pump will usually go 6 months between cleaning, any level being higher will reduce that to 3-4 months.