Tankturn over help. Cor 20

[Cesar Romero]

Hello, wanted to share my findings on the COR 20 for my particular setup incase it helps anyone else. Also, I’m looking for some advices on what would be the recommended turn over rate for my setup.

The original goal was a 10x turn over rate, however was disappointed after multiple results show I was quite under my goal even at max.

Incase your considering this pump, here is my setup to compare to see if this pump would be powerful enough for you.

80 lbs of Fiji pink sand
90 lbs of pukano rock
Plumbing of 1.25
Tank size 150 60x24x24
Measurement from top of sand to water line is 59x22.5x22
Display is around 117 gallon after water displacement.

Here is an idea of my current plumbing:

I ran a series of 3 test for each side of my return for each of the speeds. Neptune cor has 8 dots that individually get brighter until it’s max brightness and then moves on to the next dot, etc till it reaches max at the 8 dot. Note the UV ball valve was close.

This were ran at the max speed (brightness) of the following:

At max brightness 5: 685 gallon per hour
At max brightness 6: 800 gallon per hour
At max brightness 7: 913 gallon per hour
At max brightness 8: 950 gallon per hour

Hopes this helps give you an idea of what to expect if your looking a pump as such for your setup.

If anyone could lend some advise, I’m still cycling the tank. Plan is future mix reef. Was going to do Triton but do to lack of the 10x flow thinking I’m going to go with kalk and Red Sea trace elements to start, what would you recommend I should use for the flow rate for this setup? Not sure of running it at max 8 since I’m concern of the pump wearing down faster. Thanks!

 

[TheEngineer]

Where are you measuring your flow from?

 

[Cesar Romero]

I’m connecting a soft tubing to each of the returns individually, which covers the entire return and utilizing a 1 gallon bucket for my calculations.
I was honestly hoping for better numbers, but I tested each speed three times and got similar results.
Do you see where perhaps I’m loosing GPH?

 

[roberthu526]

I would try running the manifold using a separate pump. I don’t know exactly how much you are losing but it looks like you could be losing a lot due to the number of fittings.

 

[TheEngineer]

Are all of the other ports closed? Just outputting to the tank?

 

[Cesar Romero]

At the time of testing all the ports were closed. The far right one is pland for the carbon/gfo reactor, the far left port is for the UV, and the other three middle manifolds where future expansions, etc.

The middle manifolds have Union for easy disassembly, do you think by removing that and just adding a straight pipe would increase my flow drastically? Honestly I didn’t think it would affect it by much being that they were closed.

 

[Cesar Romero]

Unfortunately everything is already hard plumb so wouldn’t be able to dedicate a separate pump for the manifold and then another for the return. Only other solution I can think of is in the future using vinyl tubing and running a smaller pump to make up the difference for the 10x up the tank. Or buying a stronger pump.

 

[TheEngineer]

If they aren’t open it won’t affect flow by much. Do you have a flow curve for this pump?

 

[Cesar Romero]

This is the one from Neptune:

 

[TheEngineer]

Ok, that would equate to about 10’ of head height. Seems reasonable to me.

 

[Cesar Romero]

I appreciate your help and looking it over. So I guess it is expected based on my current plumbing layout.

If I could ask your opinion, at what percentage do you run your return pump at? And what would you recommend for a turnover rate?

 

[TheEngineer]

Happy to be of some help.

I run an oversized pump. I’m using a Vectra M1 on my 50g. I run it at 50% at night and 65% during the day.

 

[Cesar Romero]

Thanks again, think I’ll try to keep mine around there then, 75% max to lesson the wear on the pump, I’m guessing.

Well hopefully this information may help anyone else thinking over this pump and plumbing design.