help! quiet return pum

[cameron]

DannyBradley;110637 wrote: 1.Too flow of a slow through a trickle filter will cause the water to not reach the end of the drip plate for the bio balls. This severely reduces the capacity of the filter. This leads to:

Does anyone still use this setup? I have to admit I don't know much about a wet/dry, but I have never actually seen one that wasn't stripped down into a modern sump with rock instead of bio balls. I guess if I was going to have no rock in the tank, I would consider upgrading the flow to the sump, but live rock is just too good not to have. Even if you put LR in the sump, you would think 2-3x water volume of the system through the sump would be plenty. In most cases that would 150gph-540gph which could still call for a smaller pump.

DannyBradley;110637 wrote: 2. A low turnover rate in conjuction with inadequate filtration caused by low flow will lead to a constant level of NH3 and/or NO2.

Only in two cases. One I suppose if you aren't using live rock at all in the main display case (rare these days) or the return is your only flow in the tank. I wouldn't suggest either personally and don't know anyone with the scenario, but I guess both are out there.

 

[dannybradley]

Cameron, I respect your knowledge highly and always take it with great consideration, but you have to remember that after working retail and solving countless issues with just about every setup you could imagine has given me a great depth of insight into many different modes of filtration and their effetiveness. I've run/setup/maintained refugiums, high flow, low flow, HOB, canister, DSB, BB, berlin, and plenum systems. Never have I seen a 5x turnover rate be detrimental to a system, but have on many occasions see a low flow rate cause many issues with a system. I can argue for and agaisnt just about any of them depending on the desired results of the user. But seeing as I had 4 hours of sleep last night, I'll just hope you take my word for it until tomorrow .

 

[cameron]

There isn't anything really wrong with a high flow rate through the sump in most systems except cost and noise neither of which an installer has to live with. So while I respect your experience with the many tanks you have run into, I don't think it invalidates my math on the typical new reef tank setup by the majority (ok sheer speculation on the majority bit). In a modern reef system (not counting the other older designs or just plain quirky ones), but in the vast majority of systems installed today (namely live rock in the main display, with powerheads and skimmer in the sump area) a honker return pump is simply not needed and is an added expense. I was just pointing out that all these big pumps that people are recommending are probably not necessary. A Mag18 is likely going to throw 600gph to 700gph into her sump while a Queit One 3000 will put around 300gph. Depending on the setup and size of her sump, the later is probably a better fit as it will save her around $70 a year and probably another $70 if she buys new pumps and will reduce the chance of an overflow in case one return gets blocked.