Pumps

[rdog]

I know i read alot saying that u should never run a pump as an intake and a return... I have it gravity fed right now with a genx return pump but my placement of my sump and refuge stinks... Hard to work on thing and a low ceiling... I was thinking about keeping the gravity feed out of the tank, which will go into a holding tank, maybe a little bit of live rock in there then pump it through my soffet to a seperate room(utility room) to the sump and refuge and then pump it back to the DT... My DT is in the wall in my basement already so i have to pump up no more than 2 and a half feet and across 25 ft... Has anyone heard of someone doing this or something close to it... I know people do it but gravity feed it from the upper level of the house to the basement with a return pump... Please give me ur feedback and thoughts... TIA... I will also keep a spare pump on-hand just incase also...

[sslak]

Wouldn't the challenge be that if either pump failed, you end up with a flood and no way to prevent it?

In a normal system if the return fails, the gravity drain stops....

In your case, the return shutting down would either run the drain pump dry and burn it out...or if you have it drawing from the display it would drain your display dry and flood the sump.

The intake pump failing in the holding tank would result in a flood too because your sump would be pumped dry by the return, and the display would be overflowing into the holding tank still.