Closed loop Pump and return

[Christeon]

Hey guys I'm starting up my first reef tank I've always kept mixed tanks with mostly fish.

I'm looking to add a closed loop system to my 75 gal oceanic. I will have a 20g-30g sump, and a 10g-15g gallon refugium behind the tank. I'm looking for suggestions to size the pumps for both the sump/fuge return and the closed loop system.

I plan to keep lps and hardy sps within the first year. Pipe sizes, and flow rates would be great as well and I'm looking for quiet durable pumps, I'd rather invest in something that's going to last than a cheap pos that has to be replaced often.

 

[Anonymous]

IMO since you are looking to keep LPS and SPS I would go for 40x or more tank turns per hour. The idea is to not blast the coral with a steady stream, but to have it more gentle. I am going to figure you will have about 10x from your return pump so you will need 30x, give or take, from the CL pump. Something that will push just over 2100gph is what I would do. To make things a little better have the suction pipe one size larger than the fittings on the pump. Sequence makes a good pump, so does panworld and Iwaiki. I have used panworks and sequence. Both were quiet and performed well. You may want to look at some sort of current changing device. Oceanmotions, sea swirls, wave sea are some suggestions. I used an oceanmotions unit and like it quite well.

 

[Christeon]

I was looking at 200-350 on the return pump and 1000-1500 on the CL pump. I knew that sps needed more circulation but not that much 8O and didn't want to lead anyone into an answer.

I was going to make 2-3 suction intakes, all in the back one low in the center and one through each corner return. I wanted a center return but my tank has a 10" wide center brace. I also looked at the oceanmotions with revolutions in the front corners and beside each center brace in the rear. I like that system and it's a whole lot cheaper than say vortecs.

Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

Two suction itakes should be enough. If it were me I would put both low in the tank. I did not have the revolutions just a 4-way unit. I do not see where revolutions would help that much.

The flow figures I gave you are my opinion. The tank I am bulding (150 gal) will have about 9x on the return pump and about 50x through 2 tunze 6200(5200 gph @100%). I figured one running 100% and the other running 50%. I will also have some eductors on the return pump. I am not figuring any for those yet. IIRC they can multiply the flow by about 5 times.

I've had closed loops on my last two tanks. I just do not want to deal with the plumbing and the large pumps sucking up power. With the size of my tank I am not to concerned about the two large power heads.

 

[bleedingthought]

I was looking at 200-350 on the return pump and 1000-1500 on the CL pump. I knew that sps needed more circulation but not that much 8O and didn't want to lead anyone into an answer.

With the figures you posted, you're looking at roughly 10X-15X your total volume per hour of circulation. I have about 18X and I will not start with SPSs before I upgrade. When I first started out, I had about 250-300 GPH as my return (Mag 5) and my skimmer eats up almost twice that. I now have a mag 9 dialed down just a bit to bring me to about 650 GPH and I'm happy with it. (About 7.5X) My skimmer gets 500 GPH and my fuge gets the rest. My powerheads handle the other 10.5X.

In my opinion, the amount of flow you had in mind would be good for a mix of softies and LPS. Not really suitable for SPS, although I do not have first hand experience with them yet. Also, another thing to keep in mind is what your flow pattern is because 40X of laminar flow is just going to blow everything to mush.

HTH

 

[Christeon]

Ok so far I'm looking at the Sequence Snapper going into a 4-way from Ocean motions, I considered going with the super squirt but it would probably increase the velocity to much, make noise, waste power. In the long run I'll probably be glad I got the 4-way I'm leaning toward version 3 so two 1" returns active each cycle and I could upgrade up to a dart down the road with the same fittings for more flow.

For the sump the Blueline HD40, 780gph? Does the sump pump thru the ASM G3? Is it not driven by it's own pump or do you not return into the sump? I'm confused here I thought the ASM G3 was a stand alone skimmer and would work as long as there was water in the sump. I was trying to keep the noise down on the returns etc. with the slower flow.

Thanks for all the help. You guys are definitely clearing up alot things for me and saving me alot of trouble down the road.

 

[bleedingthought]

Yeah, the ASM is an in-tank skimmer. It runs on a sedra that's rated at 500GPH and I was just saying that it wasn't skimming all the water going through the skimmer section. I just didn't like the small amount (about 200GPH since it was split between it and the fuge) of water that was going through there.

And you are right, the more flow the more noise. But you can definitely go more than 250 GPH with not much increase in noise.

 

[Anonymous]

I think the sequence snapper is a good choise. As is the larger oceanmotions unit. The snapper does not have a lot of head to spare.

I had the same blueline pump on my 60 and was quite happy with it.

The skimmer just sits in the sump. The skimmer pump is what makes it work.