Getting my feet wet, again....

[Mcasteel]

I started out with a 29 gallon saltwater tank about 4 years ago. It was a fairly simple setup: a 29 gallon tank, about 30 lbs of rock, a 2" sand bed, a good skimmer and a hang on the back mechanical filter. I had a couple of jawfish, a clownfish and a pygmy angel. I ran this setup for about 2 years until I had to move and I gave it to one of my friends.

Flash forward to present day and now that I have more space, I'd like to give it another try. Over the weekend, I purchased a 75 gallon reef ready tank and I pick up the stand today. I'll be running a below the tank sump. I guess one of my first questions would be "How many gph should the pump that I purchase run?" I've read a minimum of 5 times the total aquarium size and I've even heard 10 times. I'd like to get some opinions. I would like good circulation, but I don't want the water coming back into the tank faster than it is going out through the overflow. Thanks for any input.

[kuoka]

The bigger the better IMO. It will also help provide better water movement from the output.

[finfan4u]

I am setting up a 75 gal at the moment myself I would go with a MAG 3. that is what I am running in my 75 I doesnt flush any. It seems good. The head height at 5' is 235 gallons. But, please research this a little more and see if you agree.Wait for a pro to respond. Just do a search for MAG3 and look at stats. Mag 3 Pump pushes 350 gph.

[Grins]

My tank is 55g so a bit smaller, I went with an Eheim1260. I heard good things about the Mags and the Eheims but more good about the Eheims. It running quieter and cooler and the ability to mount it externally made it a winner for me. They do make larger sizes of the Eheims.

[Ricepicker]

u dont need the return pump to have high gph, but u need high flow in ur tank... i dont know if that makes sense to you. (search closed-loop on the forum)

basically it comes down to what u want to keep in this tank, if its fish only, 10-20x water volume is fine, but if u get into corals, 100-150 isn't uncommon

[Mcasteel]

Since my first post, I finished making my sump / refugium out of a rubbermaid container, acrylic panels and eggcrate. The tank has been filled with saltwater and it is now circulating with about 50lbs of live rock and 75lbs of crushed coral. I placed the larger pieces of rock on 2" pvc pipe connectors sitting face up to avoid dead spaces. My sump is divided into three areas. The first area is where the overflow dumps and I have it filled with live rock rubble. I have a piece of eggcrate sitting over this area. Because of lack of time, I didn't purchase a filter sock for the pipe to empty into, so I used 2 clean tube socks, one inside the other. I attached it to the pipe with a zip tie, but not too tight that I can't take it off to clean it and replace. This sock lays right on top of the egg crate and drains into the first section of the sump. On the top of the acrylic dividers, I glued a 2"strip of gutter screen which prevents macro algae from the middle section from going into the third section. In the middle section, I have a half inch of fine aragonite sand with an inch of Miracle Mud on top. I've added two cup fulls of calupera to this section. It has 24 hour lighting to prevent it from reproducing. The third section has the Mag Drive 1200 pushing the water back into the tank. I noticed a few of the bad anemones so I purchased 3 peppermint shrimp and 4 red legged hermits. It took them 3 days, but I haven't seen any of the anemones. I purchased a NOVA Extreme 48" T-5 8x54W fixture, but it hasn't arrived yet.