Should I make a manifold and pump advice.

[Crooked Reef]

I have a 90 gallon reef ready tank that I am getting ready to do the plumbing on and trying to decide if I should do a manifold. I currently have a mag 7 pump for the return pump but also have an MP40 and an MP 10 for in tank circulation so I am not depending on the mag 7 for in tank circulation. My current equipment I want to run that I have is a TLF 150 that I had converted to a biopellet reactor on my old tank. I want to make this into a carbon reactor so I won't need much flow for it. I have a 1200ml reef octopus biopellet reactor and a BRS reactor for gfo. Should I run 4 separate pumps, make a manifold for the mag 7 and run some other piece of equipment off of it and add one to two more pumps for the rest, or keep the mag7 strictly on the return and buy another pump and build a manifold to run the reactors?

If it matters the room that the tank is in has the house thermostat in it and that room stays at about 70-72 degrees depending on the season. For lighting I am running 2 radios Xr15w pros on the xms mounts with an otherwise open top on the tank. I will have heaters if necessary but do not want to run a chiller.

[Lsufan]

Having 3 separate reactors I would definitely run a manifold. I have a manifold on both of my systems & I am very glad that I do. Once u start running more then one reactor I think a manifold is the way to go.

If u plan on keeping the mag 7 then I would plan on running a seperate pump for the manifold. I like more flow through the sump then the mag 7 will give u if it's feeding other things. I would set it up to where if I decide to upgrade your return pump to something big enough to feed everything u don't have much work to do to tie in the manifold to the return plumbing. Maybe go ahead & have a tee in your return plumbing & put a ball valve on the tee & stop it there. That way if u change it up in the future all u have to do is tie in the manifold to the ball valve.

It's really personal preference, some people rather feed a manifold from a seperate pump. I like to feed my manifolds from my return pump & how I have them set up I have no issues. If u have to buy another pump anyways then u could go ahead & upgrade your return pump if that is how u want to do it.

[rocsec1]

I installed a manifold for the first time on my 120 and I am glad I did. There is more room in the sump without the individual pumps. I am running the return to the 120, a return to the 40 breeder frag tank, a brs Gfo and carbon reactor, and a biopellet reactor. I am using a jebao dc9000 return pump. Only thing is i wish I had gone with the dc12000.