Return Pump help For a 600 gallon

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Oskie Boy

Oskie Boy

Piranha
MFK Member
Jul 4, 2011
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Memphis TN
I am about to setup a 600 gallon tank. Tank will be at my house in a few weeks. 96*48*30 tall. It has a large trickle style sump. I am looking for 5 to 6 times turnover I think. All the fish are small right now but will grow large in a few years, so the bio load will be low to start. Tank has two external overflows each with three 1.5" bulkheads that head down to the sump. For the returns I want to break the flow from each return pump into two 1" PVC then I will use flexible PVC all the way to the 1" return bulkheads on the top of the tank, (there are four) then going to use a reducer fitting down to 3/4" thread and use lock line that breaks down to two output nozzles.

What are your suggestions for two return pumps? Only pumps I have ever used are Eheim pumps. I have been looking at DC pumps like Jebao DCQ 10000 and the Jebao DCP 13000. I also looked at the Reef Octupus S-8. The reef octopus is about four times the price not sure if that is really worth it or not.

Thank you,

-Nic
 
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eco tech - L2 - got two... reefers seem to like em... you could get a notch down L1 - however i have similar size set up and only get an 8x turnover with head loss and 90’s -

nice, but pricey / has an app/ get a battery for them for power outages....

GL!
 
I bought the Jebao DCP 20000 for my 180g tank. I have not finished my setup yet so I haven't actually run it. What I found on my 35g tank is my DCP 5000 pump throttles down very nicely to a fraction of its max output. The DCP 20000 should be way more than I need for my 180g but I know I can use the electronic controller to throttle it down. Conversely if I bought a pump that is too small for my needs I can't really throttle it up for more flow.
 
The jebao dcp are great for the money, but I would go for a pair of the largest model dcp-20000 for your 600 gallon. I am using 2x dcp-10000 for an upcoming build around 300 gallons.
 
The Jebao pumps look to be in metric? How do I jump from the metric output over to my flex PVC? Anyone have any pics of how they did this?
 
My Jebao 20000 came with several connectors for the pump output. One of them was perfect for my 1.5" flexible PVC pipe. I welded the flexible PVC pipe to the connector and screwed it onto the pump. I like to sand the mating surfaces on the connector and the flexible PVC pipe before welding (gluing). I always get a stronger bond after roughing up the mating surfaces with 80 or 100 grit sand paper. The Flexible PVC pipe (spa tubing) really needs the sheen sanded off the mating surface before gluing it to any fitting in my experience.
 
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The rule of thumb is cut the to cut the rating of the pump in half. The reason being is that return pumps are rated at zero head height, and 100%duty cycle. Once you factor in diameter of the plumbing head height and 90* plus the fact that you won't be running the pump at 100% the actual gph is about half the advertised rating. For you returns the larger the diameter of the plumbing the less lops you will have. So a 3500 gph rated return pump should actually put put just shy of 2000 gph. I would suggest using 1-1/2" return plumbing for each return pump to get the most out of your return pumps. The return pump shouldn't be hard plumbed to your pvc. A 1' piece of flexible pond hose should be used to connect the return pump to your hard plumbing.
 
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Oughtsix said:
My Jebao 20000 came with several connectors for the pump output. One of them was perfect for my 1.5" flexible PVC pipe. I welded the flexible PVC pipe to the connector and screwed it onto the pump. I like to sand the mating surfaces on the connector and the flexible PVC pipe before welding (gluing). I always get a stronger bond after roughing up the mating surfaces with 80 or 100 grit sand paper. The Flexible PVC pipe (spa tubing) really needs the sheen sanded off the mating surface before gluing it to any fitting in my experience.
Click to expand...

The Jebao 20000 says 5283 gph, I understand that due to plumbing/ head that you may only get half of that, just curious what size tank you have that on? I guess what I am really wondering is are you concerned that the pump could go to 100% flow from whatever you have it set at? possibly from a power outage or something like that. Then have the ability to overflow the tank due to the plumbing not being able to handle the flow?
 
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