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npaden

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Well, I've been running the new tank with 2 Ampmasters for a little over a month and am just not getting the water flow that I want. I found a good deal on a Sequence 1/4 hp pump that does 4,800 gph at 11.5' head and I'm going to replace one of the ampmasters with it, but I'm not sure which one I want to replace.

If I replace the ampmaster I am using for the return pump this would be the easiest and seems to make the most sense. This ampmaster has the most head pressure on it and I would benefit the most by replacing it. Currently I figure that there is around 10' or 11' of head pressure on it and that knocks the ampmaster down to only 1,800 gph according to their performance curves. Replacing this ampmaster would give me 3,000 gph more flow in the tank and also I have the returns from this ampmaster already set up on the right side of the tank and that is where I plan on keeping my sps corals and where I want the most flow.

My only concern here is the amount of water that is flowing through my sump. It is a 135 gallon sump, but already with only 2,000 gph flowing through it I'm having some problems with salt spray where the drains enter the sump. They are flowing hard enough that the surface of the water splashes and sprays and I think I'm going to just have to put a cover over the sump to fix this. Another option that I thought might help here is spliting the drains and having them enter the sump in 4 places rather than just 2 and this would minimize the velocity of the water entering the sump. I guess if there is a cover over the sump then this wouldn't be a concern anymore and I need to do something to correct it anyway so this is probably my best solution.

The other option would be to leave my return pump as it is and replace the ampmaster that is on a recirc loop. This wouldn't add as much flow to the tank as this setup is only at around a 6' head and that puts the flow up closer to 2,800 gph so I would only be adding 2,000 gph of flow. Also this is on the side of the tank I intend to be somewhat lagoonal so I would have to pipe the returns all the way over to the other side of the tank and that would just add friction loss.

The other problem is the intake for the recirculation loop. The intake is only 4" from the surface of the water and I was having problems with the ampmaster sucking air from the surface of the water and throwing a zillion bubbles into the tank not to mention the horrible noise it made. I stopped this by adding some intake slots inside the overflow which has stopped this with the ampmaster, but I'm not sure how the bigger pump would run on this setup.

Another problem is that right now the intake to the recirc loop from inside the overflow is sucking in nearly all the water going into the overflow so that side is not draining much water at all into the sump putting the majority of the drain to the sump from the other overflow. If I switched out the return pump this would even these out more.

LOL! Very hard to describe the setup! I'm leaning toward replacing the ampmaster I'm using for the return pump. This will be the easiest, create the most flow, and just make me fix a problem now that I most likely will have to fix at some point in the future anyway. (the salt spray in the sump) I'm going to add 2 more 1" returns to whichever side I add the bigger pump and that should keep my velocity going out each return about the same as it is now, just give me more flow.

I'm going to use the ampmaster I replace to drive my skimmer instead of the 2 - Mag 12's I'm using right now. This will minimize my additional electricity use that results from adding the larger pump.

Okay - the novel is over! For pics of how my plumbing is currently set up look here:

http://www.padens.homestead.com/tankplumbing.html

I would appreciate any advice or comments that anyone might have that could help me make this switch as painlessly as possible, or anyone with suggestions helping the water drain situation into the sump.

TIA, Nathan
 

fnj

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Nathan,

It sounds like the easy solution is to replace your return pump. A few questions though. Do you currently have a problem with microbubbles not dissapating running 1800gph through your sump? Do you think running 4800gph through the sump will too much to allow the bubbles to dissapate?

What is the amp draw on that pump? For a 1/4hp pump it puts out a lot of flow.

Have you thought about how loud your take will probably be? The pump is probably going to be quite a bit louder that the AM and the sound of 4800gph crashing into your sump
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You have an awesome set up BTW.

Frank
 

npaden

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Suprisingly the sequence pump doesn't draw that much electricity. Their site shows 348 Watts for that model. (That's less than an Iwaki 100RLT)

I'm somewhat concerned with the extra micro bubbles, but think there are many ways around that hopefully. I think I'm going to go ahead and try switching out my return first and seeing how that works out.

As far as sound, right now the loudest thing on my whole setup is the motors on the 1" sea swirls I've got running. Next loudest noise is just the water moving around and splashing up against the tank walls, etc. in the tank. I'm willing to live with the sounds of the water moving aroound in the tank!
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Thanks for the compliment on the tank - still a work in progress, but hopefully it will look good in a couple years.

Nathan
 

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