Sump plumbed and tested... lots o head pressure

[mjpelikan]

My brother and I (and one of his sons) finished plumbing the sump in the basement yesterday. We tested for leaks, and after cutting 2 inches of hole filled tubing off and reattaching it, there were no leaks!

Display tank is 120g, and there will be approximatly 30 gallons in the sump (will become less as LR,LS, Skimmer, etc are added).

Only possible problem is that my 1200gph pump is only pushing about 300gph upstairs. Should I add another pump and line?

Thanks!

Mike

 

[chadscamaro]

I would just get a bigger pump with better head pressure.

 

[mjpelikan]

What gph should i be shooting for? I have some power heads for circulation in the display doing about 900gph total, then this will add another 300... that is 10x flow, or does the math not work like that? I think I have read I should be shooting for 15x...

 

[Shooter7]

:lol: I have a mag 12 with a little head on it, so maybe 800 gph, 2 Seio 1500's and 2 MJ 900's in the tank itself for a total of 4260 gph or something like 35x flow. Could maybe have more.

 

[mjpelikan]

WOW!!! Okay... so I will start saving some money for a beefy pump. Would a pool pump work? a pond pump?

 

[Shooter7]

I would say to not worry so much about your return pump being overly powerful. I have a sump that sounds like it is only slightly larger than yours and the water flows through it pretty fast, so I think it negates some of the benefit of my refugium area because of the water flowing through so fast. I would suggest you get your main display flow via powerheads or closed loop. You could maybe use a slightly more powerful return pump than what you've got, but not a huge amount more. Just IMO of course.

 

[Mykayel]

^^^ I agree, think about how much water you want going through your sump. Do you have a fuge in your sump? Even if you don't, you don't need that much water flowing into your sump for your skimmer to be effect.

You can always do a closed loop or add powerheads in your displace to achive your desired water movement.

 

[mjpelikan]

Good point. The plan is to make a fuge in the sump. I will hunt down a ~2500 gph. Anybody got a used one, inexpensivly?

 

[DrBDC]

You really only need 15-20-X through sump/refuge. Put the other 30-100X turnover in the display either powerheads/closed loops.

 

[MayoBoy]

What size line is it and what's the static head?

 

[spooda420]

look into iwaki pumps, the ones with the japanese motors I have 2 and no problems in 3 years... great pumps, either the 70 RLT or 100 RLT.

 

[mjpelikan]

What do guys think about Intex 2500 GPH pool pumps? Noise wouldn't really an issue as it is in the basement fish room...

http://www.coolinflatables.com/site/891852/product/56633E

I have found them for less then 100$ on ebay...

 

[Markk96]

You will need to get one that has saltwater seals, other then that I am not sure about any other parts in them that might have issues.

IMO look at either the Pan-World or the Reeflo Pumps.

 

[MayoBoy]

What size lines do you have going up and down?

 

[Nanook]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7633811#post7633811 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by spooda420
look into iwaki pumps, the ones with the japanese motors I have 2 and no problems in 3 years... great pumps, either the 70 RLT or 100 RLT.

I second this!

Dave

 

[Markk96]

I like the Blue Line pumps they have a great rep and are made by the same guy who used to work for Iwaki. I am going to run a Reeflo for my return, it is not going up stairs, but it has the best motor on the market a Baldor.

 

[dela]

What kind of return do you have? I have an Oceanic tank and did not say anywhere, what the overflow was rated for. I got a GenXMak4 (great pump) and it was putting out about 900gph at 14' of head.

Made a racket! Could not figure out why they overflow was so loud. Then I added a valve, throttled down the pump and all of the sudden the return was quiet. Then I dug up some literature on the overflow itself and found it was only rated for 600gph.....

Just something to keep in mind...

 

[mjpelikan]

Thank you everybody!

The bubbles are now gone. It just took some time. The bubbles had been reducing in numbers all this week and finally today they were all but gone! All we did was tighten the return pipes in the bulkheads, and gave it time.

Huzaah!!!