return pump?

[digitaljepoy]

Guys, how strong should my return pump be if it needs to move water in a 30inch piping travelling upwards to my display tank? My sump and display tank are both 20g.

Thanks!

[hotdogmj71]

great question.

Surely there is a formula to figure this. I would like to know also.

[ps3]

use the head loss calculator on home page. limited info only by pump models listed

[ps3]

http://www.reefcentral.com/index.php...oss-calculator

[hotdogmj71]

Total losses are 6.88 feet of head pressure, or 2.97 PSI. with a flow rate of 654 GPH.

This is for a Mag9

So the 64K question is - what does it all mean? Good? Bad?

[digitaljepoy]

If the pump is weak, obviously it will just overheat and die, if its too strong, my sump will dry out and flood my display tank. So yeah, kinda hard to decide, theres a big risk involved.

[sleepydoc]

Not necessarily.

Your pump, tank, sump and plumbing all need to be matched/designed to work together.

Total flow by the pump will be determined by head loss. Head loss/plumbing resistance is dynamic i.e. it increases with flow, which is why you need to put a pump model in to the head loss calculator. The good news is it will be the same at that flow, no matter what pump you use.

Figure out about how much flow you want, then how your return plumbing will be designed, then play around with the calculator until you find a pump that has about the flow you're hoping for and it will give you a reasonable estimate of head loss.

The other half of the equation is your overflow & drain plumbing to the sump. If properly designed, there should be no risk of flooding; increasing the return flow to the tank will simply increase the flow to the overflow and back to the sump.

[Igorevich]

When planning your water system not to use the traditional elbow 90*, it is better to apply a smooth elbow 90*. Thus to reduce the loss of pump performance.