Return pump upgrade

[Anonymous]

Something has been puzzling me for a while now, my overflow has been functioning very slowly and the volume of water being turned over is nowhere near the apparent 1000ga ph that I was told the pump was rated for. (Display is +- 385Ga, sump is about 120Ga) I have perpetual suspension problems that I have attributed to my Jawfish and wrasse (2) disturbing my substrate- usually only obvious when my MHs are on. I bought the pump second hand but unusedand have a spare, its a nasty no name brand- hence the spare. On doing some investigation, I found that the pump in question is rated at 2000lph (+- 500 Gph) and that halves at a head of only 1m, with my tank head being nearly 1.8m. 8O The display itself has lots of circulation with 2 X 2000lph and 1 X 3000 lph powerheads in there.

I have now bought a new return pump rated to 1000gph (4000l) at a 1m head height. I will be swapping them tonight. My question is, what do I need to watch out for? Will the increased flow materially change my water levels? (I think so.... :? ) and what should I watch out for in my sump/refugium? Obviously the change in return flow may necessitate moving some of my corals (?) (I think) :?
... or am I just being overly nervous?

 

[Len]

The water levels will rise for sure, but not by a whole lot. If your water level is already maxed out at the top of your tank, then you will have to be careful. The only other thing to observe is naturally your overflow drain capacity.

Corals and other animals should have no problem adjusting immediately.

 

[shr00m]

i recently had to widen the teeth on my HOT overflow to increase flow to match the new pump i got.... i knew the drainpipe was large enough, dremeled the teeth VERY carefully, widened about 5-6 and it did the trick.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Len and Shroom
Put new pump in anyway last night, there was no noticeable rise in the display height although I'm sure that there was...good thing too as I was pretty close to maxed out before. My overflow coped really well with the increased volume too. There was a problem with my baffles as the water backed up at my refugium (where it has to flow out thru the sand bed) which necessitated me raising the absolute height of the underflow baffles with a bead of silicone, but that seems to be fixed now. There is now a helluva lot of water motion in the display- but i suppose its better than too little. Corals look fine, one 'nennie is repositioning and most of the fish are coping. My 3 tiny occis are swimming like little energiser bunnies though, but at least they are keeping fit 8) . My new tank project is also ticking along and i hope to post some pics soon, just busy collating the equiptment and having the stand tidied up.