Pump power for the sump?

[volk23]

Finished a wet/dry 10g sump for my 37g tank, going to start working on the overflow this week, have few questions:
What pump would someone recommend me to run the return line on?
Is it bad for the pump if i put a valve on the return line to control the sump water level, or is there a trick i'm missing?

Please advise, thanks in advance.

[IVPush]

Since no one else has responded I'll throw in my $.02 although Im still trying to perfect mine as well.

In theory its suppose to work like this. The ruturn pump runs wide open as long as the supply line can support the water flow capacity of the pump. You can use a ball valve to cut back the return flow, this wont harm the pump any. This is what I am doing until I can figure out why my supply line wont support the gph capacity of the pump.

Home that helped a little.

[volk23]

thats what i figured, but what pump should it be at least?

[David Grigor]

You are only limited by the flow rate of your overflow.

I vote for a Mag 5. ( or the next size up Mag 7 depending on you overflow ).

[Q-ball]

If you can handle it, I'd go the Mag7...On my 65g reef I started with a Mag5, wasn't enough so I tossed a 2nd Mag5 I had in there by the end of the day. I run a Mag7 on my 90g using a Amiracle HOB overflow, it works well, I figure I'm getting about 500gph or so. Mag's are good pumps, I've had great luck with them...Just my .02...

Q!!!

[Agu]

Volk,

First of all, welcome to RC!!!

You don't mention if you have a pre-drilled tank or hang on overflow. A hang on will have specs for max flow, so just get a pump that moves a little less based on the head (vertical rise of water).
I have an Oceanic 37 gal that's predrilled. I'm using a mag 5 with a spraybar on the return. It has fairly low turbulance but that's ok because it's an anemone and lps tank. If you want/need more water flow step up to a mag 7, the overflow should handle it just fine.

I don't have or want valves anywhere in my systems, except on the calcium reactor. It's just one more thing to go wrong. If you do add a valve, make sure it's upstream from any pump. A valve on the intake side will create air bubbles, and possibly burn out your pump if flow is obstructed.

Agu