Sump size for 125 fowlr/preds

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Experiment397

Experiment397

Redtail Catfish
MFK Member
Feb 26, 2010
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Probably the Poly section
Would I be okay using a 55 gallon sump for my 125 fowlr tank I'm setting up? I can try to get a 75 If needed but would need to expand my stand a little. My tank is only 18" wide so I've been looking at the 55 because it is only 12" wide. I'd like to run a mag drive return pump and have around a 10x turnover. Also Ill be running a coralife in sump protein skimmer so I won't need much room on the sides of the sump for anything. Ive been thinking of having about a 24" refugium where I'll have a good population of macro algae and stack of rubble. Any thoughts?


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The bigger the better so you have a larger water volume. I run a 40g sump and 20g refugium on my FOWLR 125g. Becareful when using a 55, 90, and 75 because they are taller and it can be a pain to work in ecspecially if you have standard hieght stand. That is why I chose to use a 40g long. It is only 16" tall and gives me plenty of room to work inside the stand. You want to make sure that you are able to remove all the equipment from your sump easily so you can do maintenance when needed. What size mag is your return going to be? Also I would look for a different skimmer that coralife skimmers aren't very good, and with pred FOWLR you will have a high bioload that will need a good skimmer.
 
Here is a pic of my sump setup.
F26A15C6-0BDD-4BC2-9F8D-E953EFF5A8A8-12540-000015F00709394E.jpg

I still have to hang the light and get some macro algae for the refugium. I just started rebuilding the tank a little over a month ago. My stand is 36" tall and doesn't have a center brace. I love all the height under the stand to work, so much better then the manufactures stand.

One thing to keep in mind when picking a return pump is that you want the return pump and skimmer to have a similar flow rate. My return pump, a mag 9.5, puts out 950gph, but after plumbing and head hieght it only puts out around 600gph. So each overfow gets 300gph, and my skimmer's suggested feed rate is 300gph, so one overflow feeds the skimmer directly and the other feeds the refugium.
 
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