New 90gal...plumbing Questions

[Riley]

I know this probably belongs in the "Saltwater Hardware" area, but it seems like this has the same people in it and it is a bit busyer so I will get an answer quicker.

I got my 90gal today ! but im going to need some help with the plumming. Here is some pictures of my equipment.

The Calibre of this Connecting plumbing thing is 55mm

Here is my "Aqua Globe AQ-4500" im not sure if this means anything to anyone but here are the stats:
Power----50W Calibre----20mm
Voltage-----110V Max jet----3.0M
Frequenty----60Hz Max flow----500gal/hr

My question is what type of plumbing pipes should I buy?

-Riley

 

[SkiFletch]

Wow, well the tank and sump look like top notch equipment, great find . That little pump is way too small however IMO. By the time it pushes water up the couple meters worth of head pressure that will be on it, I'd be surprised if you get 200GPH through your sump. Not exactly ideal. When sizing a return pump, care needs to be taken to select the right one. 55mm is about a 2" drain pipe which can handle up to 2000 GPH worth of flowrate if memory serves. I'd look for a significantly larger pump. That way you can kill two birds with one stone. Max out your filtration capacity, and use your returns to help re-circ water instead of using powerheads (which get expensive and numerous in large setups ). Prolly the best type of pumps would be externals which would require drilling of the sump. I'm not too aware of what prices are in canada, but around here I can get someone to drill a hole for me for $20, and if I had that sweet tank of yours I'd do it

 

[Riley]

Thanks Ski. Today I think im going to go to my Pet store and see if I can find a stronger pump. im Also going to by some PVC pipe. So if I do manage to buy a stronger return pump would I be able to do this in the picture below to help re-circ the water? excuss the image size..stupid photobucket..

I was wondering was if I could do this if I bought more powerfull pump. Would there be to much resistance there going up the PVC pipe?

-Riley

 

[SkiFletch]

That is the ideal setup for a 90 and as long as you select the proper diameter PVC pipe for the capabilities of the pump, everything should be fine. While I'm sure that you will find more-powerful pumps at your LFS, they will probably charge you an arm and a leg for it. Ordering pumps online is far more reasonable as you can get a distributor price instead of a retail price. Look into bigger pumps like Danner Mag drives (probably the Mag 24), or perhaps a Quiet One 6000 if you MUST use a submersible. Keep in mind thats gonna create a lot of extra heat in the tank which will be problematic come summertime. If drilling the sump is an option, go with Pumps by Iwaki, Dolphin, or Pan World. You're probably looking for 1500gph@4' of head for a pump.

 

[Riley]

There I fixed the picture so it shows the rest. what do you think would be a good size pump? how many GPH?

 

[andywg]

I would be wary on going overkill on the sump pump. You don't need the same sort of flow rate through a sump as you do in a display tank. 5-10x system turnover should be fine. Also, by trying to get most of the flow from the sump you are increasing head on your turnover resulting in wasted watts fighting gravity. Also, the more time that the water can spend going through the skimmer, the more effective it is. Blasting 40 times the sytem turnover through the sump will not give the filtration in there (macro or DSB) as much time to work either.

For equipment, I always recommend the top notch route. Go Tunze. In a 90 gallon the most you would need is 2 powerheads. They cost a lot to buy, but save a fortune in electric bills. A webpage did a comparison and within 2-3 years you will be saving money on if you had bought Rio powerheads, despite the high purchase costs. However, they seem even harder to get hold of Stateside than they are in Europe (and the fire at the end of last year ubuning their stock didn't help).

If not Tunze, then Seio pumps are a fair second. They are larger and less GPH per watt than Tunze (with no option to control the speed), but still give a good turnover and are considerably cheaper than Tunze.

Another thing to be careful of when using the sump pump for general flow is not placing the return to the tank too low, remember there can be a syphon effect when the pump is turned off.

If you want to use drilling and external pumps for flow you are better off doing so as part of a closed loop system (where the drain and the return for the pump are connected to the display tank, so the loop is closed off to air). I initially tried to get the sump return to do most of the work on my two tanks, but now would go smaller sump return and decent Tunzes for in tank movement every time.

Andy's recommendation:

I can only do this in LPH now, so I reckon the system is around 120 US gallons = 454 litres.

Sump return: Eheim 1260/1262 springs to mind - anything from 2,200LPh to 3,000LPH that copes with head.

In tank movement: 2x Tunze Stream 6000, each pushing up to 7,000LPH linked to a Controller (the smaller one should do).


That would give you a max of over 30x system turnover, allowing for a large selection of corals and the controller will allow it all to be slowed down for feeding and night time (if you use the electric sensor).

It would cost more to set up than most want, but you would have the best brands there are and be saving money on the electricity. You would probably find you could start up with just one Tunze and add a second on as you go. Add on the etremely wide output (rather than the needle like projection of most powerheads) and you really have the best out there.

I currently use a pair of Tunze 1010 which are so old they have made in West Germany on them, making them a minimum of 17 years old. Still work perfectly.