[boba40]

allright,i bought my eshopps advance series sump with refugium today and i also bought a mag drive pump model 9.5-950gph.the lfs told me a 1200 gph would probably be a little overkill.
depending on sump placement,with the pump inline with intake on the tank bottom i have about a 4 foot 6 inch run to the top of spray head,but this gives me a two foot long run from bottom of tank to the inlet side of sump.
if i turn sump around it increases the distance between the pump and sprayhead another two feet and puts the tank drain line directly under the tank drain.
what configuration would be best and is the pump going to be adequate?

[gimmito]

Could you post some pic's of what you want to do ?

[Jer77]

Originally Posted by boba40

allright,i bought my eshopps advance series sump with refugium today and i also bought a mag drive pump model 9.5-950gph.the lfs told me a 1200 gph would probably be a little overkill.
depending on sump placement,with the pump inline with intake on the tank bottom i have about a 4 foot 6 inch run to the top of spray head,but this gives me a two foot long run from bottom of tank to the inlet side of sump.
if i turn sump around it increases the distance between the pump and sprayhead another two feet and puts the tank drain line directly under the tank drain.
what configuration would be best and is the pump going to be adequate?

This is a very easy question to answer but raises more questions about your understanding on how to plumb your tank correctly so it works to its full effectiveness. To answer your question the pump to tank input/inlet piping should always be minimized before the drain to minimize the head pressure that slows down the water that flows into your tank from the pump. The drain piping can be as long as required and even be plumbed horizontally as long as the pipe diameter is sufficient.

I have to ask some questions just to make sure the LFS guys sold you stuff that will work correctly. What size tank do you have? What is the diameter of the hole(s) for the drains to the sump? Then I can tell you i the pump is the correct velocity.

Hope you figure it out!

[emccullough1]

Hay Bob here is a link to a Head Loss Calculator it will let you play around with different pluming ideas. With it you should be able to get the Flow you are looking for. Just inter the size pipe number of 45 L's and so on and hit Submit.

Reef Central Online Community

[ToxicDice]

I faced this exact same dilemna a couple weeks ago and here's what I decided after some fairly exhaustive research and opinion soliciting.

I placed my return pump (also a Mag9.5) directly beneath the pre-drilled return hole in my 75g Megaflow. The pump moves the water from the sump exactly straight upwards all the way until it branches apart at the top of the display tank for the two locline return nozzles. My drain into the sump exits the bottom of the display tank and then uses a 45 degree elbow to move it horizontally far enough to reach the skimmer chamber.

I'll see if I can't post a picture sometime tonight after I get home.

I wanted to make sure that the return pump faced the least restriction (and moved the most water) possible. Just in case this flow turned out to be more than the drain flow rate I used a tee (actually a cross that you'll see in the picture later) and a ball valve that I could adjust to return some of the pumped water back to the sump. In this way the return pump faces no undue pressure by restricting its flow and increases the flow rate in the sump section.

Btw, I calculated all the flow rate loss due to my return plumbing setup and if the Megaflow claim of 600gph drain rate is accurate it's almost dead on using the Mag9.5 for the return pump.

Good luck and I'll try to get that picture up later.

[boba40]

hey guys,
thanks for all of your input.i am going to trust the input of the lfs. they are a large scale store with actual marine biologists on staff and to top it all, most of the employees there have reef aquariums.the place is called" that fish place "they have an amazing selection of fish,corals,you name it they probably have it.
they sold me a 90 gallon perfecto reef ready tank,an eshopps advance series sump and a mag drive 950 gph pump.the tank has 1 inch holes as does the sump.they actually tried to talk me out of buying a sump and into building one to save money.
i plumbed it the drain line,it runs straight down to the sump,for the return line i used the flex hose-no sharp bends -nice gentle curves-i have 8 inches vertical than 18 inches horizontal than another 6 inches vertical to bulkhead in tank.from the tank bottom to the spray head is another 23 inches.i think i'll be ready for water this weekend.