Need your thoughts

marinelife · Jul 18, 2016

I am thinking of adding a closed loop to my tank. I currently have the following:

1 Waveline Apex Ready DC10000II water pump Dec 2015 - return pump
2 6100 streams Feb 2003
1 wavebox Nov 2005
1 wavebox June 2007
2 6105s streams March 2014

As you can see some pumps are getting old and I fear they will not last forever. I am thinking closed loop with the 2 6105s left in the tank.

My tank is 375 gallons made of 1" acrylic. I am thinking I can do a larger water change and drill a hole about half way down the end of the tank. I am thinking 2" bulkhead with strainer and I have a 2" ball value.
Do you think I am risking to much drilling a hole in a tank with some water in it? The ends is covered by a cabinet that holds all my equipment.

For the return side I would drill 4 1" or so holes to have the plumbing come thru the bracing. I already have one hole from a return hole I am not using so I would only need 3 more.

then what pump would you use?
I was thinking another waveline or Ecotech Marine Vectra L1

Thoughts?

Joeganja · Jul 19, 2016

Looks like you've gotten your money on those pumps. Kudos to you on taking care of your pumps and maintaining them. You can always get new pumps like vortech and gyres or even tunze and add them one at a time just in case yours fail or keep yours as a back up. As far as the vectra probably the highest rated and best build quality with best controllability return pump out there. Hey if you have the money then do it. Ecotech marine's build quality are great. My vortech is going on 3 and a half years strong not a single problem.

marinelife · Jul 19, 2016

thought about just buying new ones slowly but been helping friends with their tanks and am liking the closed loops they have. I am going to keep researching pumps some more, I am not in a hurry to get this done.

Pepcrylic · Jul 19, 2016

I added an external skimmer pump to my 1'' thick acrylic sump. No issues at all. Just try to keep as many shaveings out of the tank as possible. Use filter socks if ya have them. As for your pumps. Try to upgrade ASAP.
The 2'' drain is much better than anything less. The return lines for the CL are OK over the top, but not ideal.