pump info for a friend

[sea gnome]

My friend is starting up his 55 g tank and needs a pump for both a protien skimmer and a return pump. I think some of you use one external pump for both with a t connection and control valves. Money is a concern and jl has a quiet one on for $165. Would this be powerful enough and a good choice or do any of you have any other suggsestions? He will probably begin setting it up this month.

[Aquattro]

Rachel, what type of skimmer is he using? I don't think that pump would handle it unless it was very small. He also needs to adress how much return flow he wants, which depends on what is going in the tank.

[titus]

Hello,

Like Brad said it depends on the skimmer. For a good return rate, that would have cost at least 50% of the pump power, not even including head lost. That leaves 600gph for the skimmer, which is a rather low number for the high aeration skimmers. If he's using an airstone driven skimmer than it's okay.

Titus

[Delphinus]

When I was in the planning stages of my current 75g, I was bent on using only one pump to drive both my sump return and my skimmer. It works, but now that I have it in place and hindsight is 20/20, I'm not so sure I'd really recommend this approach. It works, but the two goals are almost mutually exclusive. You want flow through your sump return, but you want pressure for your skimmer. So what I found was, in order to get any function out of my skimmer, I had to close my sump outlet valve, which increased the line pressure and thus gets the skimmer going, but it reduces the flow from the sump. So to really get the most of both goals, I think a bigger pump is needed, but then you're not getting the most of that one pump.

Thus it's possible a person might be further ahead to look at, say, two mag drive pumps.

I guess the flip side is that even if you found a good deal, it's not so economical usually to buy two of them.

So I guess it is a bit of a tradeoff.

I've heard good things about the Quiet Ones ... they're certainly a lot quieter than my mini turbine (aka Little Giant 4)..

[sea gnome]

He will be using a protien skimmer like the one I made but a little bit smaller so it will fit inside he sump. Brad knows the size so you're right that there probably won't be the necessary pressure with just one. Hadn't thought about that.
There is a place in Victoria that sells new/used pumps and we got one for our pool a couple years ago. It has a 1hp motor and I was also thinking somthing like that might work if the noise wasn't a huge factor. any thoughts?? Rachel

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

1HP...geeze...that would work but the amount of power a 1HP motor burns is...insane. We are talking about 8.5 amps here. :eek: In comparison, a Mag 12 draws about 1 amp.

Pool pumps are not usually saltwater compatible and they can have metal parts in contact with the water.

I would say that you'll need two seperate pumps for the plumbing and the skimmer. If the system isn't running yet, IMHO, I would wait and save enough money to get proper equipment for the reef. For flow, a Mag 5 or 7 will be sufficient for a 55. Then, you need to ask around to see what kind of a pump would drive the skimmer optimally - a Mag 7 or 9.5 may be good starting point.

- Victor.

[sea gnome]

Thanks for all the info, I'll let him know. Rachel