Wavemaker or better turnover rate and drain

dalee26

New member
My tank that I got from a friend of mine is an all-glass 120g with a 17g wet/dry. I am looking into upgrading the wet/dry to a 30 or larger soon. It now has the flexible connections and I was going to run PVC instead to it. It only has return pump that does 650gph rate and that is only 5 turnovers per hour. I was looking at the mag 12, splitting it off to 2 return outlets up top facing the opposite corners, and making both of the holes in the tank drains. He had it set up for the left is the return and the right is the drain. There is waste all over the rocks and I can't seem to beat it with constant water changing and siphoning it off the rocks. I was looking at a few wavemakers but have plenty of pumps already in the tank (4~Corialia 4's and 2~300gph powerheads). Would the return pump and PVC make a big enough difference that my wallet can save on not getting the wavemaker?

It would be being pumped up 54 inches, too.

Thanks!
 
I'm a fan of low flow through the sump and high flow within the tank. Personally instead of the new return pump I'd focus on the flow patterns in the display tank. How are the existing powerheads positioned?
 
I have 2 in the back middle pointing at the front and slightly different sides of tank and 2 on the front pointing across the top of the rocks to the back of the tank just a foot behind the other pump. Same on both sides. I have the other powerheads positioned on the bottom shooting across the sides of the rock on each end. They blow the same direction. I also have a canister filter hooked up to suck the junk out of the water. I am wondering how bad that contributes to nitrates maybe.
 
I have started on making the pvc for the new drains and installed ball valves on all pipes. Those flexible pipes just really don't work well and it only cost me $40 for all the supplies. I got an extra valve for the bottom of the wet/dry to attach a refugium here very soon. I really need to put in a top off tank and was wondering if anyone had any tips for a DIY setup. It would be nice if the tank I could add a float switch to my wet/dry, so that when my power goes out and I am not home it would pump all of the overflow into the container of top-off. I know that would pretty much ruin the top-off but it saves me my wood floors. Maybe a really tall refugium would work to overflow into instead. Do!! hehe Thanks!
 
I just finished the new drain and output and should have the mag 12 sometime this week. I have cutoffs on every outlet and can restrict the flow if need be.

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Maybe I missed it but, is this tank Reef Ready, and if so, how many overflows? And if you are using a HOB overflow, what is it rated for?

You have to make sure that they pump (( in this case a Mag 12 )) isn't pushing more water then your overflow(s) can handle, otherwise you are going to either run the sump dry, or have too much water in your tank, and then onto your floor.

Personally, for that sized tank and sump, I wouldn't want to have more the 600 GPH through the sump.
 
The tank is reef ready and has two overflows. The drains should have no problem with draining the water. It has 2 one inch drains. I am constructing my own overflows. I can regulate the flow but right now I am lucky to have 450 gph coming out and it just isn't enough.
 
Are overflow boxes crucial? I ran the pvc outputs straight into my tank to pump the water back in. I am making the inputs out of Ts and a 90 that will siphon down. This is my first build on anything aquatic so all criticism is greatly appreciated. I will take a picture now of the outputs. I had to cut and reglue a part on the left one and it, somehow haha, got turned a bit on me and I had to re-angle it. :cool: I am not going back down there to recut/reglue it =P
 
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