Circulation pumps for 40 gallon Breeder Softie tank

[Pea Puffer 67]

Hello I’m new to the saltwater world, and I am researching pumps and have heard the answers vary from low to high. But I want to know, how many GPH of water circulation do you need in a reef tank? I’m looking into getting 2 480gph pumps and attaching a wavemaker that would switch off power every 15 mins. So one would go for 15 mins and then the other. Should I upgrade both to 800gph? Or stick with the two 480gph? Or just get one bigger pump?

 

[dbowman5]

a lot depends on what you want in your tank. some fine sand will blow around or create dunes if there is too much flow.
What you could do is put the 480's in your tank and see if that does it. if you can get programmable ones so you can adjust the output that will allow you to fine tune the performance.
I look forward to hearing what works for you.

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

It depends on the plumbing requirements for your return plumbing. What are you going to use, DC pumps have a larger opening, eheim have a smaller size, Sicce is in the middle. How big is the area where the pump or pumps sit? How high the tank is from the sump? It used to be a regular question until the DC pumps came along, but they solved one problem but created another.

 

[lpsouth1978]

On my 40b I am using a Jebao DCP-6500 run @ 50% with dual returns. Each return has an RFG nozzle on it. In the tank, I am using a single Jebao SLW-20 run at 20%. I am considering ditching the SLW-20 and going with a couple SLW-5 instead. This has kept the tank free of dead spots and everything seems happy.

P.S. - I have LPS, Anemones, Gorgonians, and a single small Monti frag.

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

I would like to. share by experience, I have an IM Lagoon 25 EXT and I mistakenly bought the wrong over flow for my tank, I thought it was for a nano it was not, it required a larger tubing, something like a Sicce 2.0 pump, my pump return area is so small that pump would not fit in there. I have to use the Sicce .05 pump for a return it uses the size of 3/8" I believe, so I had to use adapters to upsize the tubing.

So the first thing is find out how much room you have for your return pump,
Second, what pump will fit in there.
How big is the return plumbing
Does it match the return plumbing.

 

[Pea Puffer 67]

Thank you everyone. I will look into all of these.