decreasing flow rate of a Mag 7

[jballa15]

I am close to adding a fuge below my 29 gallon and have a mag 7 laying around for the return. I believe the 700 gph would be a little much for both a seahorse tank and the fuge itself, so how do I turn down the flow rate? Can I use some sort of valve at the beggining of the return line? Will this damage the mag 7? It will be pumping up about five feet to the tank. Thanks, John.

 

[flyingarmy]

With a MAG 7 pushing 5 feet you'll probably only get around 400-500GPH. If you want to reduce the GPH more, just use a ball/gate valve on the output of the Mag 7, never use any type of flow reduction on the intake to any pump. That will surely cause it a quick demise! Good luck!

 

[gwhiz]

rlmblm21;101182 wrote: I had ball valves on my Mag 9.5 to control the return, but I finally got enough flow that I didn't have to throttle it back. If you have a fuge, you could build a tee off the return, and put another ball valve there, to throttle up the fuge flow.

I have been told many times that the back pressure on a pump (from either a reducer or the ball valve) would wear a pump out earlier and could also cause other problems with the pump. I've never experienced that, but I would be hesitant to restrict the pump's natural output.

You could also put a tee in the return and a valve that controls flow right back to the sump--no restriction and you control the flow that goes up to the tank. Like in the right side of this pic.
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