Well, I made the big jump to a good size pump last week. I bought a used hammerhead pump from grizz and plumbed it into my system. The pump I had was a bit small and I think was under performing given the fact it was pushing 9' of head from my basement sump to my living room display. I also wanted to add another tank in my dining room for a couple fish that seemed to be not getting along with my yellow eye hole tang and starry blenny. I ended up setting up a 25 gal cube tied into the main system. According to the flow chart, the hammer head was a bit much flow so I got reefflo to send me the barracuda impeller for $20. I also hot tapped my sump (talk about exciting). I drained the return section of the sump leaving the skimmer and refugium full and drilled the side of the tank for a bulkhead to feed the new pump.
Everything worked perfect. I plumbed in the new cube and new pump. I was still a bit concerned about how much water this thing was going to flow so I added 2 bypass valves. But after firing it up and waiting until the siphon caught on both tanks I was able to shut both bypass valves totally off. I figure my flow has increased in my main display to about 1400 gph from slightly over 1000. I figure the cube is getting about 350-400 gph. I'm also feeding my refugium and 2 reactors off the main pump. I'm getting a bit of vibration running up the main supply line and it's transferring a bit through my floor joists, so I have to work on that.
While I was plumbing the new bulkhead and line to the suction side of the pump, I also Y'd off and provided a valve for draining the system for water changes and plumbed it over to a floor drain.
I plan on taking the old Laguna pump and using it for a mixing station pump. Bought all the fittings yesterday, just got to find time to get it done.