150g Sump Help

[mmedley]

I am setting up my 150g in wall. I bought the tank from a lfs that was moving and setting up new tanks. I got a sweet deal on it with all the plumbing and pump. I am trying to figure out the best sump set up. The tank is plumbed with 3-2" bulkheads for drains to the sump and 2-1.5" returns. I will be running an external octopus skimmer.

I have a 75g i was planning on turning into a sump but i think it is too narrow. the dimensions are 48x13.5x23.5

I have a 50g breeder that was already turned into a sump from another purchase I made. It was used on 150g tank but I dont know if it would handle the flow from this tank.

1. Is there a way to determine the flow based on the way this tank is plumbed?
2.It was a "supreme" pump that came with it, based on the label on it looks to be rated at 4000gph-Will this be too much? Was thinking I could put a ball valve on it to throttle it back
3.If I use the 75g as a sump, how tall should I make the baffles?

[mmedley]

50g sump in first pic

[aquainas]

Got your message!
Looks like you got a good start equipment wise. The 4000gph pump would function as your closed loop utilizing one 2" drain and the returns on the back, the other 2" drain would feed your sump. However I only see a total of 5 holes; three of them plumbed to the 4-way returns from closed loop? You'd be short either a drain or return.... Can you post a clearer pic?

[mmedley]

Thanks for taking a look. Here are a few more pics, maybe they will clear up any confusion. The holes drilled in my tank are not for a closed loop, they are "overflow" and returns. The three 2" holes have elbows on the inside of the tank as overflow drains. They are all plummbed together in the back to drain into the sump. The pump is set up to be submerged in the sump and return water back to the dt via the two 1.5 holes. One of my return bulkheads broke off in the move.

[aquainas]

I can clearly see it now. To be honest it defeats the purpose of having multiple drains run into a 4-way such as in this config, not that it won't work. If it were me, considering there are five holes I'd run one 2" drain to a closed loop pump returned through both 1.5" holes and the other 2 - 2" as drain and return from the sump. If the pump you have is a Hy-Drive see if it can be run externally because that's a super high flow through rate for a sump.
Having the three drains necessitated the use of such a pump that could keep up with the flow to prevent the sump from overflowing and I assume the logic of three elbows to increase surface skimming was used here. Ideally you only need one drain and maybe a back up because 2" pipe will flow in excess of 800gph and that's plenty for a sump.

The other option would be to once again separate all the drains, run one to skimmer chamber, one to refugium with valves to control the flow, use the third 2" as a return from the sump with a locline y-split to give more options for directing flow and the two 1.5" for returns as well all with valves of course to allow for fine tuning. Essentially you'll want to run any media reactors you plan on using off the return side of the pump also.
This way if you have to use what's there you can. There are other options but I'm just suggesting what I would do if in your shoes.
Hope that makes sense.
Shane.

[mmedley]

thanks shane, I never even thought about seperating the lines. I think I will use the two 2" drains to the sump and the other 2" as a closed loop with the 2-1.5" returns.