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Bee. Mia for awhile. Going to get my 120 running ASAP. Need some help with plumbing. I have 2 1 1/2" holes for drains which equals 1800 gph. What return pump should I use? And also should I use PVC clear tubing for my lins?
Id say you can go with a mag 18. At the 4 ft or so you should be at around 1400 gph so youll have plenty of room. Id go with flex pvc tubing, much stronger.
Why are you trying to do over a 10X turnover thru your filtration, you are going to have problems with micro bubbles, sound from your overflow pipes and not enough contact time for your skimmer to work.
IMO i wouldn't do more than a 5X turn over, let your power heads in the tank be for water movement.
As far as tubing or pvc, I prefer tubing, just because I am able to swap them out every 2 years, and also it is flexible, just in case you hit it by accident.
A 10x turnover means you recirculate your water 10x the amount of water volume in your tank.
your tank is 120 gallons and you want to recirculate at 1800gph that equals a 15x turn over..
Just to give you an idea my display tank is 450g, my turn over rate is 2x for filtration, (900pgh) that means in 1 hour i recirculate my water 2x. but with my power heads their is a 8x(3600gph) turn over with in the tank.
Don't worry about ten times turn over rates. Try and find a pump to match your skimmer if anything. If u plan on running the pump in the sump go with an ehiem pump. Can't remember model number. No mags , they run hot. I'v seen great 120 tanks ran off of one ehiem at roughly 900 gph. Take into account for running media reactors and get everything running off the one pump to save on energy and headaches. U don't need alot of flow through the sump, and add vortechs or tunze in the tank for flow inside the display.