Hi,
I'm planning on my 90 gal (reef to be) aquarium for a long time now. I
was initially planning on a single powerful pump in the sump
(submerged or external, contender Iwaki MD40RLT or Mag18) that will do
everything: return from the sump, refugium (very small ~ 10 gal),
circulation in the main tank via a manifold and possibly skimmer (a
counter-current, non-venturi, DIY).
However, after stumbling over the overflow calculator at RC it became
clear that through my 1" overflow I'll not be able to get out of the
tank more than 600-700gph, which is clearly not enough circulation in
the tank.
The good news, is that I realized that I probably need to supplement
the sump pump with a circulation pump anyway, and hence I will use two
(smaller, say 900gph, like a Mag 7, Ocean Runner 3500 or Eheim 1262)
pumps, one in the sump and one for circulation.
The problem is that I absolutely do not want to see powerheads or
plumbing in the main tank (I find them UGLY), and hence I plan to hide
the circulation pump in my overflow (I have a relatively big overflow
8"x5.5", and the only other thing in the overflow is a 1.25" Durso
stand pipe). I do not plan to drill the tank for an additional closed
loop with external pump (space reasons + aesthetics).
I would love to be able to feed both pipes in the same manifold, but
it seems that I open myself to flood the sump and the living room if
my sump pump fails. Hence I need two separate manifolds. I think that
the current design (see attached figure) will work when everything
works and is safe to the failure of any of the two pumps.
I have a few questions regarding this setup:
1) Did I miss anything? It will work, right? It will be fail safe,
(i.e. I'll have some circulation in the tank and no floods)
regardless of which of the pumps would fail.
2) What flow do I need through the sump. I saw somewhere on RC that I
need 3-7 times the volume of the tank, but I didn't see any
explanations regarding the reasoning behind this
numbers. Basically, flow-wise, the sump should take care of feeding
"dirty" water to the skimmer and possibly to the algae scrubber and
refugium. It does this very well at 2 times the volume of the
aquarium per hour, doesn't it? Then why push it to 7x?
3) Do you recommend any submersible QUIET, reliable pumps for about
900gph - 1200gph at 0 head, to put one in the sump and overflow? My
research on RC lead to the following candidates (possibly in this
order: Eheim 1262, Ocean Runner 3500, Mag 7, and I know - no Rios
which is a shame, as I already have 2xRio 1400 that came with the
setup; the velocity pumps are also not reliable for salt water, so
not good). Also heat transfer is a concern as my living room tends
to be hot.
4) The Durso pipe would work fine even if "bent" (to create more space
in the overflow box for the circulation pump.
In case you wonder, I prefer a submerged pump for the sump to reduce
the noise and to gain some space for other things that have to fit in
my *tiny* stand: refugium, skimmer, calcium reactor, automatic
top-off.
Thanks a lot for your help,
Mihai
I'm planning on my 90 gal (reef to be) aquarium for a long time now. I
was initially planning on a single powerful pump in the sump
(submerged or external, contender Iwaki MD40RLT or Mag18) that will do
everything: return from the sump, refugium (very small ~ 10 gal),
circulation in the main tank via a manifold and possibly skimmer (a
counter-current, non-venturi, DIY).
However, after stumbling over the overflow calculator at RC it became
clear that through my 1" overflow I'll not be able to get out of the
tank more than 600-700gph, which is clearly not enough circulation in
the tank.
The good news, is that I realized that I probably need to supplement
the sump pump with a circulation pump anyway, and hence I will use two
(smaller, say 900gph, like a Mag 7, Ocean Runner 3500 or Eheim 1262)
pumps, one in the sump and one for circulation.
The problem is that I absolutely do not want to see powerheads or
plumbing in the main tank (I find them UGLY), and hence I plan to hide
the circulation pump in my overflow (I have a relatively big overflow
8"x5.5", and the only other thing in the overflow is a 1.25" Durso
stand pipe). I do not plan to drill the tank for an additional closed
loop with external pump (space reasons + aesthetics).
I would love to be able to feed both pipes in the same manifold, but
it seems that I open myself to flood the sump and the living room if
my sump pump fails. Hence I need two separate manifolds. I think that
the current design (see attached figure) will work when everything
works and is safe to the failure of any of the two pumps.
I have a few questions regarding this setup:
1) Did I miss anything? It will work, right? It will be fail safe,
(i.e. I'll have some circulation in the tank and no floods)
regardless of which of the pumps would fail.
2) What flow do I need through the sump. I saw somewhere on RC that I
need 3-7 times the volume of the tank, but I didn't see any
explanations regarding the reasoning behind this
numbers. Basically, flow-wise, the sump should take care of feeding
"dirty" water to the skimmer and possibly to the algae scrubber and
refugium. It does this very well at 2 times the volume of the
aquarium per hour, doesn't it? Then why push it to 7x?
3) Do you recommend any submersible QUIET, reliable pumps for about
900gph - 1200gph at 0 head, to put one in the sump and overflow? My
research on RC lead to the following candidates (possibly in this
order: Eheim 1262, Ocean Runner 3500, Mag 7, and I know - no Rios
which is a shame, as I already have 2xRio 1400 that came with the
setup; the velocity pumps are also not reliable for salt water, so
not good). Also heat transfer is a concern as my living room tends
to be hot.
4) The Durso pipe would work fine even if "bent" (to create more space
in the overflow box for the circulation pump.
In case you wonder, I prefer a submerged pump for the sump to reduce
the noise and to gain some space for other things that have to fit in
my *tiny* stand: refugium, skimmer, calcium reactor, automatic
top-off.
Thanks a lot for your help,
Mihai
