External Pumps

[fkshiu]

The Snapper is not a pressure-rated pump meaning that it is not designed to pump water against gravity (i.e. upwards). That's why most people use Reeflo Darts, Snappers and Barracudas for closed-loops where there is the pump is usually placed just behind the tank rather than a good 4 or 5 foot underneath it for a sump return pump. Practically speaking, this means that you are paying for a lot of gph that you'll never get if you use such a pump as a return pump.

You can see in Reeflow's charts that their "flow-biased" pumps like the Snapper loose more flow as head (i.e. height) increases than their "pressure-biased" pumps.

Secondly, for a 185 gallon system you do not need anywhere near the amount of flow on a return pump that any of the Reeflo pumps give you. Most people aim for a 3-5x system turnover rate for their return pumps. Faster flow has three main downsides: 1. more issues with microbubbles; 2. more salt creepa (both due to the greater splashing/flow); and 3. lowered skimmer performance because the water is simply flowing too fast to be taken in and skimmed.

All this being said, external pumps are the way to go IME. Less heat and easier maintance (provided you hook it up with true union ball valves).

Personally, I'm using an Eheim 1260 on my 165 gallon system. A little pricey, but it's efficient, quiet and dependable with the right amount of flow.