Sump return pumps

[Jeroen]

Hi,

I am new to Aquarium and are currently setting up my first aquarium. To do it right it will be a marine aquarium. I have been following this site with lots of interest and have learned heaps.

My aquarium is a second hand one that I am currently building a new stand for and new sump. I am almost at the stage of putting water in it (getting more and more exiting).

The aquarium measures 1200x 380 x 650 (high) and the sump is about 90L. The pump that came with it was an Eheim 1250 but with a head of 1.2 m this will only pump around 600L/hr. With the skimmer in the sump I think this is not enough. Looking on Trademe I see the brands 'Pondmaster MKII' and 'King'. I haven't seen these pumps yet on this Forum and wonder if people have experience with these pumps? Are they any good?

Other questions I have at the moment are:

-What kind of sand do you put in a refugem?

-With my tank being 650 deep I probably will need MH lights. What wattage would be needed to get enough light at the bottom of the tank.

Thanks,

Jeroen.

[Tanksman]

Yeah I bought a King 3 recently and it is a bit 2 noisy for my requirements. It would probably be quieter on a concrete floor though as it tends to send a vibration through the wooden floor where it is located. It is putting out about 1200 l/hr at 1.6m so may get to 1400 at 1.2.

Good luck with your aquarium.

[Jeroen]

Thanks for the feedback Tankman.

[suphew]

There are plenty of choices, an ehiem 1060 would be ok, and there are plenty second hand for round $120. I use a king 4 on my skimmer, got it when I started because it was cheap and am only just getting round to replacing it. So its worked for 1 1/2 years, they do have metal on the impella so they rust after a while, plus it leaks out the back so can't be used inline as stated on the box.

Basically you get what you pay for, a cheap pump will be fine for a year or two, but will need cleaning and might fail at the worst possible time. I know of people who have ehiem pumps that have been in their tanks for 5 or more years that have never even been removed for cleaning.

[wasp]

Jeroen you are correct in your assessement that your return pump is a little small. A good rule of thumb is that the return pump should pump the volume of the main tank around 5 x's per hour. I think taking into account the head pressure yours will do a little more than 2 x's per hour.

Having said that, there will no doubt be successful tanks running return rates of less than 5 x's, but when you're getting down close to 2 x's, considering that not each and every bit of water will pass through the sump, and by the skimmer 2 x's per hour, it will result in lower water quality, especially if you wish to carry a high bioload.

However this will certainly enable you to get started, you could probably use this pump for a while, until you come across or can afford a better one.

[Jeroen]

Thanks guys. This is a great help.It is only that I am currently do the plumbing of sump and am checking the extra space I will need for a bigger pump. The Eheim 1250 has a 1/2" outlet while the bigger pumps have 3/4" outlets.

Jeroen

[suphew]

Go with the largest plumbing you can, its never a problem putting a small amount of water through a big hole, but impossible to put a large amount of water through a small.

Its alway a good idea to go atleast 1 size larger than the output of the pump anyway, creates less resistance. I did all my plumbing with 32mm so I (hopefully) wont ever need to worry about it again when I upgrade pumps.