78 Gallon Cube - How Much Flow

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

For in-sump return pumps, I'm quite pleased with my Sedra pumps. Eheims are also supposed to be very good, power-efficient & quiet.

[Joe Reefer]

Yes you can feed your skimmer with the return pump, your pump will just have to be sized accordingly.

[Josh23]

The Barracuda is sequence pump?

I thought most skimmers came with pumps?
What skimmers would you recommend in the 300-400 dollar range that don't come with pumps?

[Joe Reefer]

There are alot of skimmers that are recirculating, meaning that the skimmer pump's sole purpose is to make foam. Thus requiring a supply to feed the skimmer. You are probably going to have to spend a little more scratch if you want a "good" skimmer that your going to be happy with, then again you might find a good deal on a used one. This would be a good choice for your tank and a good deal IMO.

[mark]

Originally Posted by Josh23

The Barracuda is sequence pump?

Barracuda is a Reeflo but seems Reeflo is a division of MDM/Sequence.

[Delphinus]

I'm kind of wondering if 64x turnover might be a tad on the wild side for the livestock you're thinking of. It'd probably be awesome for an SPS tank but if you're thinking of things like open brains, Euphyllia (torch/frogspawn/hammer/etc), Plerogyra (bubble), you could probably make do with a bit less. On the other hand, maybe they'll still do OK but the flipside would be that you could probably save a couple bucks if you went with some smaller pumps.

You may also want to go with BB. If it were me I might try a 1" sand bed but be ready to go BB instead if it kept shifting around. 64x turnover is a lot, I have probably more like 20-30x turnover on my cube tank and if I don't have things pointed "just right" then the sand ends up in a big pile in the corner.

I ran my old ritteri tank (72gal bowfront) running the sump return and skimmer off the same pump. It worked, but I found that that I had to valve back the sump return line in order to drive the pressure up enough in the pipe to drive the skimmer properly. This was because it was a non-recirculating style skimmer. With a recirculating skimmer, you don't need the feed line to be pressurized, just provide a little bit of flow. I can't remember the exact recommendation for optimal skimmer feed flowrate, but I think it's somewhere near 1.5 times the system volume per hour. Anyhow, basically, not very much, so the majority of the flow from the pump would still be available for the sump return or closed loop or whatever you're using it for.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Bubbles really need calm waters or they rip & die.

[Josh23]

Thanks guys...
What size is your cube tank Tony? do you have a link to the tank setup? If your tank is running smoothly I may copy the design. Are there things you would like to change or improve?

What do you think of closed loops, drilling the bottom of the tank. Should I be concerned about the bulkheads leaking?

Ill look at smaller pump for my closed loop maybe in the 2500 gph range.

thanks for the help

Josh