return pump(s) in sump

[alecrromine]

I bought a 180 rr yesterday and I am almost done with the sump, but I have a question about returning water to the display. the display that I have has two holes drilled in each corner. one for overflow and one for return. my plan is to run each overflow independently to the sump. but the return is where my problem is. do I run two pumps? one for each return, or do I run one return and plug the bulkhead on one side? or run one pump split the line with a tee to each of the return holes?

 

[Woefulrelic]

Depends on what your intending to keep. If this is your big boy tank I would run two pumps for sure. The redundancy of having two pumps helps me sleep at night, especially when I'm away. If you were upgrading further down the line it might be more worthwhile to cap the far side and run a bigger pump, so that when you upgrade later you don't have to Shell out for two new pumps. Knowing the hole sizes might help, are you using durso standpipes? I think marineland rr tanks come with them standard.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

I prefer two smaller pumps so that if one goes out you still have half flow. Check out the Jebao DCP pumps. They are extremely adjustable and very quiet. I run two of the DCP 8000's on my 220 at about 57% power each for about 1600gph of flow.

 

[alecrromine]

I prefer two smaller pumps so that if one goes out you still have half flow. Check out the Jebao DCP pumps. They are extremely adjustable and very quiet. I run two of the DCP 8000's on my 220 at about 57% power each for about 1600gph of flow.

I was hoping that someone would say run two pumps. I just needed to hear a success story before I went for it. I'll check them out, thanks.

 

[jsodwi]

Two pumps. You never know when one will crap out.

 

[alecrromine]

Depends on what your intending to keep. If this is your big boy tank I would run two pumps for sure. The redundancy of having two pumps helps me sleep at night, especially when I'm away. If you were upgrading further down the line it might be more worthwhile to cap the far side and run a bigger pump, so that when you upgrade later you don't have to Shell out for two new pumps. Knowing the hole sizes might help, are you using durso standpipes? I think marineland rr tanks come with them standard.

it's going to be the biggest one i have set up for now. I may be moving so I don't want to go too big knowing I might be moving. it's going to house a clown knife, pleco, and a senegal poly. I have a 375 that I have never set up. I bought it when I lived in Tennessee and had to wait until i replaced my windows to get it into the room I wanted it in, then life happened and I was moving again and didn't want to trap my tank in a room that I was going to be moving from. eventually, someday, it will be set up. so I'm new to the sump game, only used canisters and hobs until now. and it took a lot of convincing to get my wife to let me do a sump. she thinks it's going to overflow if the power goes out

 

[alecrromine]

Depends on what your intending to keep. If this is your big boy tank I would run two pumps for sure. The redundancy of having two pumps helps me sleep at night, especially when I'm away. If you were upgrading further down the line it might be more worthwhile to cap the far side and run a bigger pump, so that when you upgrade later you don't have to Shell out for two new pumps. Knowing the hole sizes might help, are you using durso standpipes? I think marineland rr tanks come with them standard.

this is what I got. I haven't taken it out of the box yet. the deal was too good to pass up. $600 for tank and stand

 

[alecrromine]

another question: can I run my two cycled emperor 400s in the refugium as filters until the sump fully cycles, so I can move my fish into the 180 as soon as it's set up?

 

[Woefulrelic]

another question: can I run my two cycled emperor 400s in the refugium as filters until the sump fully cycles, so I can move my fish into the 180 as soon as it's set up?

I would size my pumps for the 375 if you intend to make a sump for that. If you planned to keep the 180 long term there wouldn't be much purpose to this. The PVC elbow at the top is the durso, these are gravity fed drains and won't pull as much as a beanimal setup. Not a big deal and adds some safety features but it's something to consider when you size your pumps to the drains.

There is no reason you would have to run the emperors in the sump, if the media is already cycled you could just transfer it to the sump. That will seed the other media and speed up the cycles process significantly. If you have a standard glass tank as a sump you could probably use them easily, but if eurobraced or if you just wanna save the electricity you could avoid them.

If you just wanted to get this badboy setup you could look into the jebao pumps, they are cheap and energy efficient. I'd imagine two jebao DCT 4000 or similar would work well in this application.

 

[DN328]

[QUOTE="alecrromine, post: 7711101 one for each return, or do I run one return and plug the bulkhead on one side? or run one pump split the line with a tee to each of the return holes?[/QUOTE]

If it were me I would keep using both returns, independent of how many return pumps you use. Good for dead spots and surface agitation.