Flow for my 75 gallon

[gordob]

I'm in the process of getting everything together to move to my 75 gallon from my 44 gallon, and I want to make sure I'll have enough flow. Here's what I was thinking: I have a Maxi Jet 1200, which I was going to throw in there along with two Seio M820s that I picked up from Saltwater City yesterday (thanks guys!). I was thinking about using a Mag 5 for my return pump (which I don't have yet) from my sump/refugium. Is all of this going to be enough flow? I realize that you can never really have too much flow, but I want to make sure that I'll at least be meeting the minimum requirements for SPS. (It'll be a mixed tank.)

Thanks,
Brad

 

[chull13]

I had a mag 7 for my return on my 75 and wished I had a 9.5. However, you don't want a ton of flow in your sump if you have a refugium. Mag 5 would be fine if that is the case. Thats my opinion. Why didn't you go with koralias (or something similar) for extra flow?

 

[gordob]

Thanks man! I was going to go with the Koralias, but when I saw the two Seios for such a good price, I had to jump on it. Do you think I'll be ok on the rest of the flow, if I do go with the mag 5? (Got the same concern you talked about with the refugium.)

Thanks,
Brad

 

[chull13]

What you could do is put a "T" on your drain pipe then put ball valves on the 2 pipes after the T. You could have one pipe running to the fuge and the other running to the sump chamber. With the ball valves you could control the amount of flow running to each chamber. Then you could get a larger return pump(like a 7 or 9.5) but you still can have slow flow in your fuge. That is what I would do. As far as the seios, I don't know much about them so I can't help you there.

 

[gordob]

Thanks dude! I may have to try that.

 

[stroid]

Not sure what other pumps you can use but I am running a mag5 on my 10g sump for my 29g display and that thing is loud as crap! Granted it is in my bedroom but it really puts out a lot of heat and noise. Just from my experience with it.

 

[calireefer]

I would be shooting for somewhere around 3000-4000gph turnover with about 400gph flowing through your sump and the rest in tank circulation. If you can make the flow random even better.
If your ever around Decatur your welcome to check out my 75g. I run Three Tunze Nanostreams and and an Iwaki RLXT20 return pump, for around 4000gph or 53x turnover per hour. My sps do pretty good with this setup. The only thing I don't like is my flow is not random enough as the controllable Nano Streams were not available at the time and were a little out of my price range. I'm planning on upgrading to two VorTechs with battery backup as soon as possible to solve this problem.

 

[calireefer]

I posted that a little late. I have my drain split with with a t and ball valves one side goes to my refugium and the other through my chiller and then back to my sump. This works great for me. One thing to think about though, is anytime you restrict your drain (ie. with ball valves) you should run a second drain line as an emergency backup, which is how I set mine up. I got the idea for my drain setup from a thread at reefcentral.

 

[gordob]

Thanks! I may have to try that. Thanks for the link!

- Brad