Pump issue

[sirhelm]

Well the Mag 24 didn't work for my tank. I was throttling it down and diverting a lot of water into my sump.

I didn't have my standpipes in at the time, so I was getting tru flow via the overflows thru the 1" bulkheads.

I calculated the head pressure for the Mag at 8.74 .

I have 2 T's
1 GV
4 90's
3 Unions
2' Horizontal
3 ' Vertical

Note" doesn't take into account the 4 90's that go from the T (top of tank)to the actual sumerged portion of the return.

So the question is what should I try next. I really wanted a pump strong enough that was wet/dry.... Would the Quite One 6000 be adequate enough?

Starting to really get fustrated with this.... :mad:

SH

[Paladin]

How much flow are you trying to achieve?

[sirhelm]

Just enough to match or near match the overflows. (dual 1" approx 600GPH per) That mag 24 was way too powerful.

I would be happy with 1000-1200 with the head pressure I have.

SH

[reefboy1]

My favorite submersible/external pump is the GenX GX4100. at 5' head it should push about 600gph.

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=GEN-X4100&Category_Code=MAK4

Good luck,
Art

[sirhelm]

Yeah I have heard good things about the genx. However not powerful enough unless i went with 2 of the for dual retruns.

Thanks

SH

[Bamm Bamm]

I'm pretty sure your really overrunning those drains... with that mag24 it's just tooo big.

[sirhelm]

LOL... Yeah... I know. I was going with the bigger is better philospohy.....

I think I will have to downgrade to a Mag 18.

Man I wish quiteone made a larger pump.

What to do now....

Well I am selling my mag 24 if anyone is interested!!

SH

[Bamm Bamm]

Look for something more energy efficient than the mag pumps to replace it. there very energy hungry thats why I sold my mag 12 and 18... I'm using my mag9.5 for my return and switching to my quietone anytime now when I get around to it=)

[sirhelm]

Yeah,

I am more concerned about having a pump that can be placed into the sump if necessary.

I would LOVE a quiet one if they built a bigger one. I am really thinking of giving the 6000 a whirl and see if it would work.

However I don't know if it could keep up with the overflows.

SH

[JsL30629]

Originally posted by sirhelm
Yeah,

I am more concerned about having a pump that can be placed into the sump if necessary.

I would LOVE a quiet one if they built a bigger one. I am really thinking of giving the 6000 a whirl and see if it would work.

However I don't know if it could keep up with the overflows.

SH

You should only be concerned with your overflows keeping up with your pump. Overflows only flow as much as you return to your tank or thier capacity.

I can have a 90 gph pump with a 100 gph overflow. But you cannot have a 100 gph pump with a 90 gph overflow.

As long as you are pumping less than your maximum overflow capacity, you're fine.

[sfsuphysics]

Originally posted by sirhelm

However I don't know if it could keep up with the overflows.

I think JSL already just mentioned this, I was going to earlier but I was hungry and went to fix breakfast..

You want your pump to NOT be able to keep up with the overflows. Overflows work by being able to selfregulate as long as the flow rate is below that of overflow. If you have a trickle of flow into your tank... the overflows still will work perfectly. But if you match the maximum capabilities they'll work fine.. until one day some detrius builds up on the teeth over your overflow and reduces the flow by a couple gph, you won't notice the problem until its all over your floor.

[sirhelm]

Touche!!

Yes that makes sense. Well then I will be picking up a Quietone 6000 then for my return. I am only planning on riunning a fowlr for now (however things have a tendancy to change quickly)..


If I go to Corals.... then I can work on closed systems with bigger pumps.

That is why you are all gurus

BTW, is there any prevention of having somethin fail on the overflows (blocked teeth, blocked drainage, etc....) and you ending up with the sump's extra water in your tank?

SH

[Bamm Bamm]

There's a guy on RC that made some sort of a setup to where if his overflow stopped working it automatically shut off his return pump.. I'm not sure how he did it but I'd like to do this as well.. Alot of people use two standpipes in there overflow boxes(take the return bulkhead in the box and make it into a secondary standpipe) I didn't have room for the second one though myself.. if you run across the thread I'm talking about post a link here as well because I'm interested in setting up a failsafe like this

[sirhelm]

That rings a bell. I remember seeing someone with a float switch in their overflows. At the time I was like why the heck is that setup like that. But I think it was used to control the pump if the water level went to high or low??

SH

[Bamm Bamm]

i think that's the one...

[magma01]

I think if you place a regular float switch at the top of the inside of you tank so that the float is at the bottom of the switch(in the engaged position so power is on) it can act as a shutoff for your return pump.

Hook up your return pump with that float switch and when your overflow stops working, the water level in the tank will rise. The float switch's float will rise with the water level and power will be cut to your return pump.

[capescuba]

Presumably you could also put the switch into your sump, and assuming the sump is full enough the switch will always be on - as soon as the sump gets too low (which could indicate the o/flows being blocked) then the switch would go off. I like less gadgets and things in my tank so personally would put what I could in the sump ...