Quote:
Originally Posted by adviner  Does anyone have an idea on what size pump is needed to feed water in a recirculating protein skimmer? For example will a mag 5 be adequate to feed water from the sump to the skimmer? I'm not talking about the actual needle wheel pump used to recirculate the skimmer but the pump that puts the water in the skimmer from the sump? My tank is 90 gallon and i got a 24" by 4" diy recirculating skimmer for free. Its complete minus the pump to pump water into it. I know you can feed water into from the overflow but rather just use another pump.
Thanks |
You've probably already made your purchase, but if not:
I have owned four different recirculating skimmers... all of the manufacturers recommended a feed pump that is approximately 1.5 times the toal volume of your system. In other words, if your tank and sump total 100G, you would want a pump rated at 150Gph. I always allowed for some head loss, so in your case I would have recommended something in the 200gph range - more along he lines of a Mag2 or a Maxijet 1200.
Four times tank volume is too much pump for a recirculating skimmer, IMO. Don't confuse desired flow in your tank with the needs of a skimmer in order to operate efficiently. Blowing water through the skimmer at too high a rate makes it difficult to control and inefficient.
LL