Fish's new tank project

[JSTR]

Progress is looking good there Chad.

Sorry about creating the moral dilemma on tank sizes.

What kind of flow you planing on running thru the sump?

Paul

[Fish]

Haha no problem Paul, I appreciate all your help gearing up for this.
I will either use one of the external pumps as a sump return - in which case I would probably have about 600gph going through the sump.
If I can find a decent submersible pump I might use that instead. Ideally, I would like to do about 300-400gph through the sump.

- Chad

[Fish]

I've just been doing some number crunching and figure that if I use one external pump on the sump return and one on a closed loop, I would have about 35x turnover in the main tank (which is about right) but the water would be going pretty fast (600gph) through my sump - maybe to the point where it sweeps microbubbles into the display.

If however, I used a mag5 as a sump return, I would have a nice and manageable 280gph through the sump. But that would mean closer to 50x turnover in the main tank (because of the mags extra output and because the Iwaki would then be bolted to the underside of the tank and wouldn't have the same losses it would have as a sump return). I usually shoot for about 30-40x turnover but 50x is a little excessive on a zoo/riccordia tank. So, there's the dilemma.

I don't really want the added expense of buying and running another pump - especially when I've already fgot pretty good flow. I might just move the baffles further apart and raise them up and just go with the 600gph through the sump...


What are people's thoughts on this?

- Chad

[woodcarver]

Chad, That is a Coralife skimmer alongside your sump is it not ?...........Dave

[JOSH]

well if you decide to use submersable i have a nice brand new quietone 3000, can be used externaly as well, its a 780gph pump

[Fish]

Dave,
You sir have a good eye. It is the coralife rated for 65gals. I had a bad scare with it the other day. I fired it up to test it and the bubble size and production was horrible... it wasn't until I tried everything else that I realized that it might have been caused by the fact that I was testing it on freshwater instead of salt ::

Josh,
Thanks for the heads up - I think if I was getting a submersible pump though, I would need something in the 300gph range.

Cheers,

- Chad

[woodcarver]

Hi Brad ,I am watching your every move
I wonder if it is the salt water versus fresh, I have not owned a skimmer yet. There is a huge thread on R.C. devoted to tuning the Coralifes ,they seem a bit finicky although economically priced . Our local LFS has them running and they seem O.K.
Are you going to have the bottom of your new tank drilled like the old ones ?
................Dave