180 gallon GPH recommendation question

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Iwagumikun

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 11, 2012
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I need to buy two return pumps for my 6x2x2 tank. I need to know the best gph and brand to use. The previous owner used brand 'Rio FH' @750gph.

What's the word from my fellow MFK members who currently runs a sump for their freshwater 180 gal tank?

There is a three compartment sump in the picture that will attach to the two drain pipes (one from each side) & the two return pumps will shoot the water back up in the center.

Appreciate any steady reply as i would like to set this up right the first time tomorrow.

See attached pics of sump and back piping.


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A

Aquaticfan

Gambusia
MFK Member
Feb 27, 2013
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Laguna by hagen makes a great pump. But why 2? Can't one larger pump get the job done for you? Laguna has a 2000gph, 2400gph and a 2900gph.

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Chizzle

Piranha
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Jan 30, 2011
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redtailcatfish88 said:
I use a Rio 2500 and a eco 2300 on my 180. The 2500 ppushes 800gph and the eco pushes 2300gph
Click to expand...
They push that much with 0' of head. A typical tank is 4.5'-5' tall when you put it on a stand. I would get a single laguna 2400, that will give you just under 1800gph @ 5' of head. Shoot for at least 10x turnover rate, depending in how much flow your drains can handle.

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redtailcatfish88

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May 24, 2013
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Chizzle said:
They push that much with 0' of head. A typical tank is 4.5'-5' tall when you put it on a stand. I would get a single laguna 2400, that will give you just under 1800gph @ 5' of head. Shoot for at least 10x turnover rate, depending in how much flow your drains can handle.

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Click to expand...
I have a few lazy Catfish. I don't need flow it stresses them out. I have 38" of head hight I have two 1" over flows with adurso setup. The tank is also drilled on the bottom. My overflows barley pump it. I use two pumps just incase one fails and I had a extra laying around. Plus I have all that flow for under 50$
 
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Aquaticfan

Gambusia
MFK Member
Feb 27, 2013
871
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redtailcatfish88 said:
I have a few lazy Catfish. I don't need flow it stresses them out. I have 38" of head hight I have two 1" over flows with adurso setup. The tank is also drilled on the bottom. My overflows barley pump it. I use two pumps just incase one fails and I had a extra laying around. Plus I have all that flow for under 50$
Click to expand...

There is a difference in flow of GPH vs Flow in current. You can still have large GPH flow with lower current by changing diameter. Still even for lazy catfish, and Id think depending on what catfish you have, they are all heavy waste producers. So the higher turnover rate of 10 times an hour is still better for them and much healthier for them as well.

Chizzle is correct though that the flow rate your mentioning for each of the pumps you mention is the zero head pressure rating. Roughly with your head height of about 3ft your Rio is only putting out 450-500gph an hour max. The Eco 2300 is rated at 2300 liters NOT gallons as per the manufacture specifation and this would be at zero head height. ------ 2300 litres Per hour = 507 GPH. So by the time you get the 3ft head height your only pushing around 200gph.




TO the OP I cant say enough good things about the Laguna pumps. VERY quiet, VERY efficent in electricity. Draws less. VERY reliable. They have a very high output you can fine ture with your system. For 180 gallons Id recommend exactly what Chizzle said. You should end up with around 10x turn over. If your looking to get a second pump as one for backup in case of a failure. Then get a second laguna to match. The other thing is Laguna pumps are reasonably priced. Im not a rep or anything for them Just can tell you of my own personal and recent experinces. This is coming from someone thats used Several other brands out there for years.
 
boldtogether

boldtogether

Polypterus
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Sep 25, 2008
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I have a QuietOne 6000 and an Eheim Compact+ putting 1600+gph through my sump. I have used this for a couple years but found the dual pumping and the inconsistent output of the QuietOne annoying. So I got a Reeflo Hybrid gold snapper/dart. The flow it puts out is amazing and consistent. I have it slightly throttled back, using approx 95w and it is virtually silent. 10x's turnover is considered excessive by some, moderate by others, but an adequate filtration of the total volume of the tank should be no less than 5x's/hr...that is industry standard.
 
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Iwagumikun

Feeder Fish
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Jul 11, 2012
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I need help fellow MFK'ers. I never used a sump system before and have used fx5 and AC110s in the past for my fresh water hobby.

Background:
I spent my whole sunday-monday (sun:9:30a - mon:430a) picking up my 180 tank, stand through U-Haul 45mins away, going to two fish stores in the area to find what I wasn't really sure about for return pumps, cleaning up the tank, trying to set up the two rio 12HF rated for 750gph default with the 36 x 12 x 20 three container 38 gallon sump to work with the 1" and 1/2 size bulk heads.

Goal:
I don't want to spend another day before work doing this. I need serious consultation to get this running so I can prep the tank for next week before i put my fish in.

Time and cost vested so far:
I spent 19 hours sunday morning to monday early morning and $188 for two rio12HF pumps, 10ft hose/clamps, and $250 on u-haul and gas.

Problem:
As you can see from the pictures, there are 1.5" drain pipes from each side that go down to the 38 gallon sump with two return lines in the center. From my experience with planted tanks, I think I need some kind of check valve for the hoses that connect from the rio12HF return pumps inside the third bay of the sump that leads to the top of the tank 52" inches off the ground. The tank measures on the stand 54.5" high. Also, I thought two 750gph's that actually becomes 630gph at 4 feet would be perfect (one for each return valve up top), but it's looking like it is sucking too fast and the third bay is becoming almost empty so i tried running only one but do not want this direction nor Y out the two return valve hoses into one rio12HF for only one single 630gph if not less since I'm actually at 4ft and 4 inches with a height of 52" from the sump return pump. Plus I noticed the large bio balls on bay 1 is full but the 2nd bay is 1/2 full. Should I even out the amount of bio balls for bay 1 and 2?

I am in SoCal Irvine and will be glad to pick anyone up who can provide some consultation because I don't have time for this mon-fri and would hate to have something go wrong when Im not home ie. water spills, return pump running dry, etc.

Please help, I can be reached at iwagumikun@gmail.com that is on my phone and I can call you right away if I can fix this today. I just want to get a estimate in how much time and corrections I need to make this possibly work today to stage for a week before fish go in. If not I have no choice but to walk away and deal with this next weekend and deal with the water I already mixed with API water conditioner.
 
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Iwagumikun

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 11, 2012
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Iwagumikun said:
From my experience with planted tanks, I think I need some kind of check valve for the hoses that connect from the rio12HF return pumps inside the third bay of the sump that leads to the top of the tank 52" inches off the ground.
Click to expand...
The rio12HF returns the water into the clean bay when I turn off the return pump to prevent from the water in the tank from overflowing ---> check valve?
 
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