Pump advise

[dockrat]

I need some advise on picking a return pump… should I use a larger External Water Pump ( in thinking Pan world ) Feeding my return and chiller/reactors thru a manifold, or should I use 2 Mag drive pumps submersed in the sump… one dedicated to return and the other feeding the chiller / reactors… Im tight for space in my tank stand so that’s why I am considering the mag drives… I guess the questions I have are… what option would be Quitter ? What are the down sides to running 2 pumps in stead of one?

Kris

[Todd]

I am using one pump to run my skimmer and my return, through a manifold. I also added in an extra valve so that I could easily add on a chiller in the future. It does use extra space in the stand, but has the advantage of being tunable (ie, more flow to skimmer / chiller / return), adds less heat to the water (heat is transferred to the air, and not to the water as it would be with a submersible), and is quieter. I went for the quietest pump according to my research (Reeflo snapper) @ 2600 gph, it is quieter then my old skimmer pump (mag 12 @ 1200 gph). It also has less energy draw then two pumps, and could work out cheaper too (although you need to account for the cost of the additional plumbing)

Check out my tank thread in my signature for some more info / pictures of how I did it.