[Lucky]

I have a 310 gal. reef tank. I have 3, 1 inch pvc pipe behind my live rock
(top middle and bottom) they have holes about 2 inches apart and they run the entire lenght of the tank. Each one has a mag. drive (internal) pump @ 1400 gph.
between the three of these pumps my tank runs hot (87 degrees). Here is where I need opinions...
I have thought about drilling my overflow box and moving the pumps to the outside
so they are out of the water. But I hate to just drill holes in my tank.

!) Would this make a decent temp. difference?
2) If I install a wave maker could I eliminate these pipes and pumps all together?

You see I have awsome circulation in my tank now with near zero waste cllecting behind my rock. I don't really want to start either, but if a wave maker would drop my temp. with very little waste getting left behind the rock work. I think this would be a fair trade.

Ok, if I drilled my overflow box and put these pumps outside the tank with them drawing water from the overflow box and pumping it back to the tank would this even work? Or do I have to drill the tank itself to for my intake water? (rather than the overflow)


I hope your trial and error can help me on this issue
Thank-you
Lucky

[pogodzib]

Moving the pumps out side of the tank should help some with your temp issues, but may not pull the temps down enough. Mag pumps are bad for heat, but good for reliability. You wouldn't want to drill your overflow box because with the volume of water that you're talking about, the overflow box piping wouldn't be able to handle it. A wavemaker isn't ideal for pumps that size. If you want to stick with those pumps and want to get them outside of your tank, look into building a closed loop system. You can build them so that the piping goes over the back of the tank so you wouldn't need to drill it. Another option would be to buy a chiller, but that is expensive for a tank that size, esp. if you can get by without it if you rework your current setup.

[Rainman69]

Don't know If It could be modified for 3 but a scwd would do 2 with 1 pump.