Sump pump size...
 

Hello,

I am new to reefing and building a 130g reef setup. I plan on using a 50g for a sump and was planning on having a fuge (maybe as part of the 50g or add a 20g?) as well. The DT has dual 1.5" drains and returns.

Would a dart hybrid be too big of a return pump for all of this?

I was also planning on using koralia powerheads in the tank for more flow.

Hopefully that's enough info. I'm assuming that a dart hybrid would be too much for a return pump. Just wondering what others thought.

Thanks!

Skimmin had a really nice 120g with a Dart (here)

I have very close to the same setup as you, i've got a 150gal, with 50 gal sump that has a 20gal fuge as part of it. I have 2x 1.5" returns set up as a herbie, one side of the tank is done with the gate valve for flow adjustment, the other 1.5" is the emergency drain. the flow back to the tank is done through 1.5" PVC and splits to 2 x 1.5" going into the tank(I'm planning on choking these down to 2x3/4" for some more velocity comming out of the nozzle) I've got 3x kora 4's for flow in the tank and using a dart gold pump for the return. I've got a bunch of stuff T'd off the return, my carbon/refugium are right now, and once i change the nozzle's in the tank i should have enough back pressure to put my pellet reactor on there too.

The Dart Gold i'm using has LOTS of flow, i have a dump from the outlet back into the sump to be able to change the output, i usually run it dumping about 1/4 of the flow back to the sump right now. I lost a lot of flow going to herbie, the 1 overflow cannot handle the amount of water that is needed. I had duroso before but was having problems with microbubbles.

I'd suggest going for it, i'm wasting a bit of flow right now, but saving on heat since i have reactors running off the return rather than having individual pumps.

Generally you want the turnover in your tank to be 10:1 or greater from return rate:tank volume. Remember you have to take into account the head height for the returns of the water being pumped back up from the sump to. You'd probably want to play with baffle ideas to put a fuge in that (low flow is better for refugiums.)

For example I have a 65g display with a 20g sump and I have a pump that outputs ~950GPH at 4' which is the vertical distance the water is traveling.

One other thing i would STRONGLY suggest. If your tank isn't set up yet, drill a few more holes, cap them if you won't use them, but that is one thing i wish i did, i'd run a side overflow witha stockman setup, and use 4 1.5" hols for a closed loop setup.

Even if you don't go with the overflow, drill a couple more so you can set up a herbie.

valve back to reduce flow and your power consumption will go down

Nice, thanks, i'll give it a shot. Already pretty efficient, can't complain. only uses 130W, valve might cost more than i'd ever save :S

That's great. Thanks for the reply!

If the flow wasn't too over the top I was going to go with it. Like you said, I can always Tee off excess flow back to sump. I wasn't going to drill for closed loop, but I might still do it. The tank that I'm hopefully picking up this weekend has 2 corner overflows with one hole in each overflow (hole is drilled right in the centre, no room for another hole). Just outside of each over flow is is another hole for return. So, I should be able to setup one overflow as a semi-herbie with the second overflow as an emergency drain? Or should I set it up with stockman type of drains?

I like the look of a separate 20g refugium beside the DT. I guess by using the one pump and splitting the flow to fuge and other equipment, I should be ok with the dart.

Thanks a lot.

-Rob.

I'm more than happy with my modified Herbie (dual overflows, one chamber primary, second has the emergency) but some discussion about using a Beananimal with dual overflows on page 100, post 2495.

Bean is as silent as a Herbie and some say more range on a Bean before adjusting required.

With 2 holes, you can do a full herbie. Not sure what you meant by semi-herbie. You will use one hole as the main drain and another one as the emergency.