SejRamkas
08-06-2013, 11:23 PM
Well I am completely redoing my tank and I need some help with the filtration. This is a long post so feel free to jump straight to the question.
BACKGROUND:
I was running an Emperor 280 rated at 280 gph along with a custom built wet/dry sump made out of a 10 gallon (not gonna go into much detail here unless I need to) using a 1" PVC overflow rated around 550-600 gph from my research. The return pump in the sump was a cheap water pump from harbor freight (actually great pumps I have been using them for years) rated at 620 gph. Yes I know most of you are saying "but your return pump is bigger than your overflow" right? Well with head loss I figured the return pump and overflow would be well suited. Well it worked for a while, but since I was using such a small 10 gallon sump I would have to fill it up to the rim of the sump tank before turning the pump on so that the water would balance out right above the pump. All fine and dandy right? Well not really because the water line was just 1" above the top of the pump and due to water evaporation I would have to top the tank off every other day. Also didnt like the fact that the water line in the sump had to be completely topped off before it would work which doesn't leave much room for error.
PROPOSAL:
I have another cheap pump from harbor freight rated for 264 gph that I use to age my water and pump it back into my tanks for water changes. Well this was taking entirely too long to fill a 75 gallon after large water changes so I thought I could kill 2 birds with one stone and switch the two pumps. 264 gph in the sump and 620gph in the aging barrel for aerating and filling.
QUESTION:
Will using this 264 gph pump with 5/8" return line even be worth using in a sump i.e. is this even flowing enough to take advantage of a wet/dry sump setup? With the combined flow of the emporer 280 (280gph) and the sump somewhere around 250 gph (conservative estimate) the magic number will be 280+250= 530gph. Will this be enough turnover rate on a 75 gal (+~5 gal of sump volume) or 80 gallons roughly? This gives a total turnover of 530gph/80gal=6.625 cycles/hr. which is a bit on the low side.
I know turnover rate is not everything and a lot has to do with your water change routine and also what you have going on in your sump, so I just would like to get a little confirmation that this will be ok with doing water changes 4X weekly with 6 fish in the tank.
BACKGROUND:
I was running an Emperor 280 rated at 280 gph along with a custom built wet/dry sump made out of a 10 gallon (not gonna go into much detail here unless I need to) using a 1" PVC overflow rated around 550-600 gph from my research. The return pump in the sump was a cheap water pump from harbor freight (actually great pumps I have been using them for years) rated at 620 gph. Yes I know most of you are saying "but your return pump is bigger than your overflow" right? Well with head loss I figured the return pump and overflow would be well suited. Well it worked for a while, but since I was using such a small 10 gallon sump I would have to fill it up to the rim of the sump tank before turning the pump on so that the water would balance out right above the pump. All fine and dandy right? Well not really because the water line was just 1" above the top of the pump and due to water evaporation I would have to top the tank off every other day. Also didnt like the fact that the water line in the sump had to be completely topped off before it would work which doesn't leave much room for error.
PROPOSAL:
I have another cheap pump from harbor freight rated for 264 gph that I use to age my water and pump it back into my tanks for water changes. Well this was taking entirely too long to fill a 75 gallon after large water changes so I thought I could kill 2 birds with one stone and switch the two pumps. 264 gph in the sump and 620gph in the aging barrel for aerating and filling.
QUESTION:
Will using this 264 gph pump with 5/8" return line even be worth using in a sump i.e. is this even flowing enough to take advantage of a wet/dry sump setup? With the combined flow of the emporer 280 (280gph) and the sump somewhere around 250 gph (conservative estimate) the magic number will be 280+250= 530gph. Will this be enough turnover rate on a 75 gal (+~5 gal of sump volume) or 80 gallons roughly? This gives a total turnover of 530gph/80gal=6.625 cycles/hr. which is a bit on the low side.
I know turnover rate is not everything and a lot has to do with your water change routine and also what you have going on in your sump, so I just would like to get a little confirmation that this will be ok with doing water changes 4X weekly with 6 fish in the tank.