Help with protein skimmer and pump

[dmcmillen]

Hello there, I have a 230 gal. reef tank to be. I need one pump to run everything. My pump will be in the garage and everything is plummed in 1 1/2" pvc to a manifold with 6 ball valves to pull from. I also have a 1" line running up 11' to my attic for a 30 gal. surge tank i would like to fire every 1 1/2 to 2 min. Any advice for a protein skimmer is also welcome. Thank you for your help.

[JoeRonda]

ASM make BIG, very affordable skimmers. The Pittsburgh Zoo-PPG Aquarium uses 4 foot ones. You might want a G4 or G5 model. As for a pump to do it all, I recommend an Eheim Hobby Pump 1262, that is a powerful, reliable pump

[RyanEG]

How far is it from your garage to the display? What sort of display are you planning on keeping? Are you planning on using the pump as your water movement source in the display or are you just planning on using it as a return and then having powerheads in the display? There are a lot of different components that need to be taken into consideration before we can advise you on a pump.

ASM and ReefOctopus make good skimmers amongst others...

[JoeRonda]

We do need more info, but I saw 11' on his post and I know my Eheim1260 does that with ease so I said the 1262 because that is the biggest one Eheim makes and that is all I'll recommend, I'M ADDICTED TO EHIEM HOBBY PUMPS !!! LOL

[RyanEG]

Well that pump will operate at a 12' head height but in my experiences submersibles aren't ideal for such heights. Personally I would use an external pump for such duties...I guess that is just preference though.

[JoeRonda]

You are right, for that size tank, depending on what he is planning on plumbing, and whether or not multiple lines are going to be ran off of this one pump, which it sounds like there is. An external pump would probably be the best choice for this application. Like maybe a big Iwaki or something.

[RyanEG]

I think the best course of action before recommending anything specific its best to know what the goals for the system are. My recommendation for a FOWLR tank are going to be drastically different for an SPS primary system.

With the decision to use the surge-type system for water flow, I may be out of the discussion quickly anyways as I have very limited experiences with that type of water movement. In very limited, I mean that I have only seen it in operation on one system, a 1000g plywood tank, and it was eventually scrapped for more conventional water movement systems. The salt creep and mircobubbles in the application I saw was too much to deal.