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  #1  
Old 02/10/2007, 02:58 PM
bronxer bronxer is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Bronx, NY
Posts: 31
Need help with 144 gallon tank

I just purchased a 144 gallon tank. It has a dual overflow into wet/dry. Also, it has 2 x MH (175 watt I believe) and two power compact elements - 130 watts each

What size return pump do you recommend for this. I'm guessing a 1500 gallon /hour pump. Does that sound right?

And what size heater do you think I need.

Thanks in advance for your help.
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  #2  
Old 02/10/2007, 03:48 PM
Randall_James Randall_James is offline
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I would only run around 750-1000gph total through wetdry.

I would also convert the wetdry to a sump/refugium, no filter media, bioballs etc...

A pair of 150-200W heaters should do the trick.

I do not even run heaters on my tanks with MH. They get down to around 75 by morning and around 82 at night before the lights go out.
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  #3  
Old 02/10/2007, 03:53 PM
zisbell zisbell is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Jonesboro, AR
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I agree with Randall's answer! Definitely a sump/fuge setup. You want the flow to be slower through the fuge so the macros can take care of excess nutrients and phosphates.
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  #4  
Old 02/10/2007, 09:03 PM
bronxer bronxer is offline
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Location: Bronx, NY
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Why don't you recommend more flow through the wet/dry? Would a higher flow be detrimental to the wetdry or bacteria bed? or would it simply be wasted electricity?
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  #5  
Old 02/10/2007, 09:58 PM
Poorcollegereef Poorcollegereef is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: CLEMSON SC
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yes, I would dump the wetdry bio-filtration after about 4-6 months running the tank. It will help stabilize the tank in the beginning but after that, it becomes a nitrate trap reguardless of flow and will polute the tank. A fuge is a great thing to have!

As far as flow (considering I have a 20+20, I only "flip" it 8-10x per hour but really it depends on the size of the sump. Too much flow means you skimmer will not pull fast enough but too slow and it wont pull enough. I think RJ's numbers are right and will save in electricity $.
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  #6  
Old 02/10/2007, 10:04 PM
markandkristen markandkristen is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2005
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i would run a eheim 1262 thats what i run on my 150 of course its just a single overflow
maybe others can chime in.
nice tank though i love the half circle tanks
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  #7  
Old 02/10/2007, 10:07 PM
Randall_James Randall_James is offline
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The reason I have found to keep the flow rates down is due to how the overflows operate.
They are setup to remove only the top skim of water from the tank. That top water happens to contain the majority of the dissolved organics. After they are "skimmed" from the top, you need your skimmer to process as much (as close to 100%) of the water as possible. If the flow rates are too high, the additional water is going to be lower in the dissolved organics and so the skimmer must work harder to remove them.
I have also found that dumping this water into a pickup area with the skimmer pump also raises the amount of skim that is picked up.
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  #8  
Old 02/10/2007, 10:16 PM
Poorcollegereef Poorcollegereef is offline
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What RJ says is what I do, my overflow feeds directly to my skimmer chamber. The only way the water makes it back to the return pump is if it is pumped through the skimmer and the skimmer's exit point feeds to my refugium, which feeds into the return pump chamber. The refugium also overflows back into skimmer chamber because the way I cut the acrylic so I really get about 110% (not an exact number but more of an rough example) of the water to run through the skimmer before going back up to the main tank. Fun times, so see how much you skimmer pumps and judge accordingly
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