Water flow

Hurley12

New member
Ok Im putting a sump on I have a 44 gallon corner tank its tall not a whole lot of surface area. Is a mag 7 to much flow if so what if i split it between about 4 different returns.
 
I run a Mag 7 on a 29g. From the pump to the 90 degree at the top of the PVC pipe where it turns to go into the tank is approximately 5 feet. It's plenty of flow without being too much.

I think you'd be perfectly okay running a Mag 7...but you may want to split it into two return pipes and/or put on an inline ball valve.
 
The "too much" on the flow will also depend on how big the sump is. If you move too much water too quickly through the sump you can have microbubble problems. Not to mention heat and noise from a return pump that is too big.
 
I think it might be. You'd be moving somewhere around 500 gph through the sump, which will likely have around 5-7 gallons in it. That would be a bunch of flow from drain to pump and will make it hard to control microbubbles. I'd back off on the pump a bit and shoot to achieve your flow in the display with powerheads or a closed loop.
 
Ok thanks, what if used a 20 gallon instead, would that be large enough. It wont fit under my tank but I guess thats not that big of a deal.
 
That would be better and I think should work okay providing you have some baffles etc as bubble traps. I personally prefer lower flow through the sump. I run an eheim 1250 as a return pump on my 90. The mag7 for the most part is _loud_ while the mag5 isn't as loud. You might just try backing off in pump unless you already have the mag7.
 
I think so. Water would be flying through and there likely won't be enough time for bubbles to escape. If you get very few bubbles from the drain(s) and skimmer then you might be okay.
 
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