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Abalone joe
08/03/2006, 06:46 AM
Heres the planned setup.
The main tank is a 29. The sump/refugium is a 20 long divided into a 15G cheato fuge and a 5G sump (approx. 3G of useful volume). I have a coralife Super Skimmer 65. The sump will be further divided so that the water entering the from the main tank will feed the skimmer pump with a consistant height of water. The skimmer outflow will flow into the cheato fuge. Thru a modified stand pipe that collects water from mid level, The fuge outflow to the sump will be equal to the skimmers input. There may be a supplimental circulation setup for the fuge that would be independant from the rest of the system.
The system pump is planned as a quite one 3000 with a rated output of 780 GPH. At appox. 3.5 feet of head the output is about 610 GPH . There will also be a closed loop with a SCWD. The CL will have a dedicated Quite one 2200 with a rated output of 581 GPH. After the head produced by the SCWD I estimate the actual output to be around 520 GPH .
Keep in mind that the fuge in effect that has a flow that is completely indepoendant from the Main tank/sump. That puts the Total flow in the main tank/sump at 1130 GPH or a total turnover of about 35 times turnover .
Is this to much system flow? If so what would you suggest as alternative comparably priced system and closed loop pumps? keep in mind that i need in-line pumps. The mag series has a bad leak history so I would like to avoid them.

DrBDC
08/03/2006, 07:36 AM
35X turnover is a good starting amount for a mixed reef or softy tank. I run over 50X with some mix and many sps only tanks approach or exceed 100X turnover. I'd bump up the closed loop pump if it were me.

There is more to flow than just turnover rate though. How many outputs, inputs, direction, narrow vs. wide outputs.

lizfrog007
08/03/2006, 07:50 AM
could someone tell me a good powerhead gph for a 55 gal tank....

thanks

DrBDC
08/03/2006, 08:10 AM
If you're not going full priced units like tunze or vortech, try a couple seio 1100's or 1500's. Or better yet a closed loop system.

Abalone joe
08/03/2006, 10:31 PM
There is more to flow than just turnover rate though. How many outputs, inputs, direction, narrow vs. wide outputs.

The main system providing the return from sump would be broken in 4 or possibly 6 outlets. This would be done with a Calfo styled pvc manifold with the outputs in opposition to each other. The Closed loop would be powered by the Quiet One 2200 with a rating 581 GPH. This would return thru 2 ouputs with the flow alternating between the 2 via the SCWD. I estimate aproximately 60 GPH head loss to be produced by the SCWD. This leaves the 520 GPH mentioned earlier.

Abalone joe
08/04/2006, 06:05 AM
I also should add that the returns from the main system pump would probably be plumbed thru 3/4" pipe. That would be divided into 2 seperate pipes 3 outputs apiece. The terminal output would be 3/4" with the 1st and 2nd outlet on each of the dual returns would be 1/2" in order to maintain more consistant presure between all of the outlets.
The closed loop would alternate between 2-1" bulkheads with nossles to alternate the water in opposite directions.
One of my flow concerns is that I would like at least a 1" sand layer on the tank bottom. With all the flow I'm worried it may Kick it up a bit. Also; Just to be clearly understood, I want the sand in the main tank mostly for cosmetic reasons as it is to be a display tank. The funtional sand bed will be in the refugium.