New sump water return question.

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I have my returns in the back corners of my tanks angled down toward the front at 45 degrees. Water enters in the rear corner and travels diagonally down to the front center of the tank. I also have 2 koralias to keep the water in the center moving back up towards the surface by the overflows.

A bilge pump would technically work, but would be very loud and Im not sure about full-time use either. Your drainn size and overflow setup will dictate the pump/s you can use. As long as they can handle the flow, sump size is not a major concern. As long as your plumbing is pretty straight without lots of 90's, a pump rated for around 1200-1500 gph should work spending on what you plan on stocking. maybe even one around 1000gph if your bioload isn't too heavy
 
Also, as my original question talked about my concerns of the whole tank being filtered. Would it be wise to get a under gravel filter for the tank? Or is that unnecessary? So should I just put the return pointed straight down and maybe put a power head on the opposite side as the return?
 
it's not that ugf's are bad per se, they are just a pain to clean and maintain. With enough turnover and carefully placed returns and power heads, i think thats all you'd really need. If you split your return line in 2 you could run a return on both sides for really good circulation, but a powerhead on the opposite side of a single return will work too
 
no on the undergravel filter, they dont work in the long run. dont worry too much about dead spots, when you see debris collecting in dead spots just add a power head to keep the debris suspended in the water, eventually it will reach the overflow. some people add canister filters to your setup to handle mechanical filtration.
 
Ok, so how do you have 2 returns? Do you have a y in the return tubing? Or if you don't, could I have a y in it? Sorry if this is becoming annoying, haha. Just in your opinions, what would be best for us to do with a 40 gallon sump and the 120 tank. It's gonna be. Tropical community tank- just gouramis, and barbs and such.
 
Yeah, I remember cleaning ugf's before in smaller tanks. They are a pain, we just want it to be perfect, or as close as we can get to it. Haha. I think I'm feeling the power head on one side and return on the other. And y'all said that would work good, so it sounds like a plan. We'll be building the sump today, then I'm going to build a stand and a canopy for it as well. We should have it up and running with water reasonably soon. We are excited. W00t.
 
lol not annoying at all. I have 2 separate pumps, because I like redundancy, but Ive run the return line to a pvc tee and split it from there. Some folks even split it again for 4 returns.

for a nromal tropical community, without a ton of heavy wasters, something like a quiet one 4000 or a mag drive 9 or 12 would be more than enough turnover. Danner makes some good pumps too. Same company as mag drive with a bit more head figured in.

good luck with the build and remember, without pics it didn't happen lol!
 
So how much would a pump like that cost? We are on somewhat of a budget, so don't want to spend too much, but also have one that will work and last.
 
You need to match your pump gph to what your overflow can handle. You can't just throw a huge pump on any tank and expect it to keep up... The pump will pump water back into the tank from the sump faster than the overflow can keep a steady supply of water going to the sump.
 
around 80-100 for the q14000 or mag9.5 and clockwork is right. Make sure the overflow can handle the pump before you buy it. Drain pipes are easier to deal with than overflow teeth in most situations. pics of your setup would help......
 
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