Rules of thumb

[rockethead]

I had a 47 gallon reef setup, but I moved about a year ago and had to take everything down. The tank has been sitting in my garage since I moved and now that I have my tax return in hand I am finally going to set it back up. I have decided to upgrade to a 90 gallon tank this time and I am curious what I will be able to re-use from my old system. I will have to sort through my old stuff to remember exactly what I had. My questions are:

What is the rule of thumb for determining what size pump I need to return water from the sump to the tank? How many gallons per hour should cycle through my sump?

What is the rule of thumb for determining what size (wattage) heater is required for a tank?

Specifically I am looking for answers for a 90 gallon tank and with a 20 gallon sump.

[eckrynock]

Nice choice! But I'm not biased. :D Rules of thumb, huh? There are a lot of people here with a lot of different "rules". But since I'm first to answer, I'll give you mine. Generally speaking, you don't want more than 3x to 5x tank volume flowing through your sump per hour. I use a mag 7 as my return pump. I believe it is 2 watts per gallon for a heater. I use a 200w heater but you may want to use 2 100s instead. Good luck with your setup!