All,
I right now have a basic 29 gallon (Petco) tank, and am planning to move to either a sumped 48X16x16 (53 gal) or a 72x16x16 (80gal) in the summer. I'm thinking about my flow.
First, I am thinking of having the flow through the sump be around 5x the DT volume (i..e pump running 250gph pump or 400, depending on the size). Partially because I want to put a 20gal-ish fuge in the sump and I don't want too much flow going through the fuge, partially because I want the constant flow in the DT to be kind of light, and most of the flow in the DT to come from power heads in the DT.
Do you think that's too low, and that maybe I should double the pump speed? (since I doubt actual flow will be close to the pump's rating, with all the friction of going through the fuge and skimmer compartment)
Second, I am thinking of how to set up the powerheads in the DT. I want the DT to be peninsula style, with the overflows in the (eta: in the center of the short edge/end of the tank
) of the tank. I have a Jebao PP4 right now (rated 120-1000gph). I could get another PP4 for a total of 240-2000 gph (40x or 25x nominal flow, depending in actual tank size), programable to pulse, sine wave, or random with Jebao's controller (and most other variants if I use an Apex or, more likely, Reef Angel). Do you think those pumps would be enough?
I would place the pumps on the same side/direction as each other. Where would you place them? Part of me wants to put them on the rear, on the same side as the overflow. Another part of me wants to put them on the opposite side, so that they flow in the direction of the overflow. (if I put them opposite, a lot of me would want to dump Jebao for a pair of MP10s or maybe even Mp40s, but I hear MP10s are under powered, even though the maxpect site shows they should be enough. But that's a LOT of extra coin - $600 for two MP10s vs. $90 for two PP4s.....)
Thanks for any thoughts!
I right now have a basic 29 gallon (Petco) tank, and am planning to move to either a sumped 48X16x16 (53 gal) or a 72x16x16 (80gal) in the summer. I'm thinking about my flow.
First, I am thinking of having the flow through the sump be around 5x the DT volume (i..e pump running 250gph pump or 400, depending on the size). Partially because I want to put a 20gal-ish fuge in the sump and I don't want too much flow going through the fuge, partially because I want the constant flow in the DT to be kind of light, and most of the flow in the DT to come from power heads in the DT.
Do you think that's too low, and that maybe I should double the pump speed? (since I doubt actual flow will be close to the pump's rating, with all the friction of going through the fuge and skimmer compartment)
Second, I am thinking of how to set up the powerheads in the DT. I want the DT to be peninsula style, with the overflows in the (eta: in the center of the short edge/end of the tank
) of the tank. I have a Jebao PP4 right now (rated 120-1000gph). I could get another PP4 for a total of 240-2000 gph (40x or 25x nominal flow, depending in actual tank size), programable to pulse, sine wave, or random with Jebao's controller (and most other variants if I use an Apex or, more likely, Reef Angel). Do you think those pumps would be enough? I would place the pumps on the same side/direction as each other. Where would you place them? Part of me wants to put them on the rear, on the same side as the overflow. Another part of me wants to put them on the opposite side, so that they flow in the direction of the overflow. (if I put them opposite, a lot of me would want to dump Jebao for a pair of MP10s or maybe even Mp40s, but I hear MP10s are under powered, even though the maxpect site shows they should be enough. But that's a LOT of extra coin - $600 for two MP10s vs. $90 for two PP4s.....)
Thanks for any thoughts!
Last edited:
. A picture would have been best. 
