High Flow From Your Return Pump - What do you think?

revhtree · Sep 23, 2011

Another topic inspired me to start this one.

High Flow From Your Return Pump

Is it good to have high, med, or low flow coming from your return pump?

Do you use the return as a source of flow?

Is it good for your skimmer to have high flow moving through your sump and into your display?

lsingh · Sep 23, 2011

i personally dnt like high flow from my return if ur skimmer is sitting in ur sump...but for sure high flow in DT via powerheads..

xmetalfan99 · Sep 23, 2011

I like high flow from my return pump. I don't count it as flow, but my skimmer is over rated for my tank. By having more water moving through the sump, the skimmer cleans more water instead of cleaning already cleaned water.

turbo21 · Sep 23, 2011

I think you need to match your return to the size of your skimmer. Too much flow and your water doesnt get skimmed enough. too low flow and you are skimming the cleaned water

bob

mallorieGgator · Sep 23, 2011

I have a mag 1200 and a reef octopus 200 Xs in my sump for a 120. Lots of flow and a huge skimmer. My water looks great and the skimmer is skimming great even though I just started the tank 4 days ago or so I already have skimmate. The high flow from the return is great too. However I'm getting some strange back pressure and gurgling from the two overflows. I think it's because the waterflows aren't equal.

xmetalfan99 · Sep 23, 2011

mallorieGgator said:
I have a mag 1200 and a reef octopus 200 Xs in my sump for a 120. Lots of flow and a huge skimmer. My water looks great and the skimmer is skimming great even though I just started the tank 4 days ago or so I already have skimmate. The high flow from the return is great too. However I'm getting some strange back pressure and gurgling from the two overflows. I think it's because the waterflows aren't equal.

Do you have the drain tubing in the water of your sump? If so, the air being sucked in with the water cant escape easily. this creates back pressure. Take the ends of the drain tubing out of the water in the sump and this should no longer be an issue.

SaltWaterDave · Sep 23, 2011

I run my tank skimmerless and with a refugium only. I run my return pump slow so the water takes a bit longer to travel through the fuge so the macro and mangroves have more time to eat up nutrients. I'm turning roughly 5-7x the water volume of my tank through my fuge per hour.

_sludgefactory · Sep 23, 2011

I run my sump/fuge at 700 gph from my mag7. I have a corner shaped tank so there isnt much room in my stand, so i have a 10 gallon divided off into 3 chambers. The water dumps into the first then over a baffle into the fuge section and the over and under into the return section. Then I have a super skimmer 220 on the outside of the sump and its output it placed into the first chamber so the clean water mixes with the dirty and get partially reskimmed. Nutrients 0 across the board, no problem algae growing anywhere. My fuge section holds about 4 inches of mineral mud/walt smith fiji mud, some rock that i use to section it off to keep the skimmer pump from sucking up chaeto and of course some chaeto as i just mentioned. Works pretty good for me so far. Kinda gheto tho. lol

caudill187 · Sep 23, 2011

xmetalfan99 said:
I like high flow from my return pump. I don't count it as flow, but my skimmer is over rated for my tank. By having more water moving through the sump, the skimmer cleans more water instead of cleaning already cleaned water.

I'm in the same boat here. My system is about 200gallons of water, skimmer pretty accurately rated for 400, return pump Reeflo Dart which probably moves at least 2000gph after all of the plumbing. This pump came with the system that I bought used so next tank (bigger

will probably have less return.

Reef UP · Sep 23, 2011

I use a rather large return pump for my tank a reeflo dart full bore on a 125! I use it for flow and a large turn over I have it entering the tank through 4-1" pipes all bends and such are made out of street elbows or multiple 45's to help reduce back pressure so I can get as much flow as possible....I use the 4-1" pipes pointed in multiple to help with more chaotic flow pattern in the tank, I also have a huge skimmer the ol' Troy lee atb monster haha!!

caudill187 · Sep 23, 2011

Reef UP said:
I use a rather large return pump for my tank a reeflo dart full bore on a 125! I use it for flow and a large turn over I have it entering the tank through 4-1" pipes all bends and such are made out of street elbows or multiple 45's to help reduce back pressure so I can get as much flow as possible....I use the 4-1" pipes pointed in multiple to help with more chaotic flow pattern in the tank, I also have a huge skimmer the ol' Troy lee atb monster haha!!

That's what I'm taking about.

Troylee · Sep 23, 2011

I love high flow I currently run 3200gph atb airstar on my 70gal cube with 40gal sump.... It rocks combined with the tank jets for directional flow...

m and m · Sep 23, 2011

I think its better for high if your skimer is over rated like most of ours our.

patent · Sep 23, 2011

I try to size my return pump to create enough turnover to match my skimmer and any other devices that are in the sump. I'd love to have the return pump create flow in the tank, but it seems like a rather energy inefficient way to create in tank flow, and costly in general. Powerheads can be unsightly, but so can the returns from the pump.

LegoZ81 · Sep 23, 2011

FWIW my pump is a Hammerhead Gold but its feeding several tanks with a common sump.

AZDesertRat · Sep 23, 2011

I prefer a lower flow on the return so the skimmer has more chance to recirculate and detritus and microbubbles have a chance to settle out in the sump due to lower velocity.

greg0385 · Sep 23, 2011

This is great news to me, in my build i came across a brand new 2400gph external pump that i want to use on my 150. I was worried on how to slow it down to the 5x turnover through my 75 sump. I have a SWC 300 skimmer rated at 400 gallon+. so if i understand correctly, i can put a little more than 5x the overall volume of approx 200 gallons through my sump?

seth&angelle · Sep 23, 2011

I prefer high flow because I am a Miracle Mud user. The ecosystem requires high flow. Another thing I love about high flow systems is there is little to no detritus build up in the sump. or overflow.

AZDesertRat · Sep 23, 2011

I prefer the detritus settle in the sump. Its easy to shop vac it a few times a year and keep it out of the display.

As you can see there are opinions all over the place and we all do things a bit differently. There really is no black and white or right and wrong in this hobby.