Help on new tank

[fish_who?]

I purchased a 125 gallon Reef Ready tank yesterday. The tank came with everything, but I was wondering if I should change the pump or add another pump. I don't have it up, and wont be setting it up til next month, but want to get everything ready. It currently has a Quiet One (the pink pump) for the return from the sump. Which flows up through the overflow out the corner. The sump was set up with a 1" bulkhead, and the guy has it dropped down to 3/4". Do you think that will be enough flow, or should I add another Quiet One to a sea swirl on the other end of the tank. I could not pass up the deal on the tank so now I have to plan.

 

[Len]

This is a rather ambigous and simplistic answer, but will apply to just almost every scenario: The more water movement you put in the tank, the better.

 

[fnj]

It really depends on what you want to keep. To give you a point of reference, I too have a 125g tank. I plan on housing mostly SPS (so lots of current is what I want) and I use 2 Iwaki MD-55RLT return pumps. Each pump runs a 3/4" Sea Swirl.

Do you have one or two overflows? I'm not very familiar with the Quiet One pumps, but I think they pump something like 1000gph @ 4ft., is that right? If so and you have 2 overflows I'd say that adding another would work fine.

 

[fish_who?]

Thank you fnj,

I only have a single overflow. I was thinking of adding a sea swirl, because I don't think I will have any movement on the right side of the tank. I was hoping to not use any powerheads in the inside of the tank. I will wait til I get it set up then find out. I can always add it later. I currently have a 60 gallon, and plan on moving it to the 125 next month. Most of my corals are softies, leathers are kinda my favorite right now. I have had problems keeping hard corals. I will try again after my calcium reactor gets set up.

 

[fish_who?]

Here's a pic.

 

[lil_ol_me]

A QO will easily out flow a 3/4", and *can* out flow a 1" bulk head, mine did. I had to throttle the pump back, which led to an overheating problem.

That tank looks very acrylic, if so, get a hole saw and drill a hole for a 2" bulkhead.
You'll never have to throttle back a pump again.

Dave