5000 gph pump???
- Thread starter mflamb
- Start date
cwfish
Member
You should also pick a pump based on your head pressure and desired pipe size. For example, I have the filtration equipment located on the lower level of my house in a utility room so the total head pressure is roughly 20' by the time you factor all the elbows and actual height. For that I use a high rpm Dolphin 4800SP which is rated at 4800gph. It still flows about 4k at 20', whereas the lower rpm effiecient pumps are just trickling or off completely. The downside to the high RPM pumps is the noise and additional power consumption, but if you need it, its the only way to go. I can tell you that the Dolphin Amp Master series is about 10-20% more efficient than the sequence of the same flow rate, but its not a huge difference and I can't speak for the noise difference since I don't have a Sequence pump however based on comments above it sounds like they are quiet and may be well worth the additional power consumption.
Depending on your setup you may want to run dual pumps for higher redundancy and therefore get 2 smaller pumps so if either dies on you your fish will be fine for quite a while. I had this setup on a prior tank and worked great.
Tell us a bit more about your planned setup. Either way good luck to you, with a 5k gph pump you are probably planning a very nice tank! :happyfish
Depending on your setup you may want to run dual pumps for higher redundancy and therefore get 2 smaller pumps so if either dies on you your fish will be fine for quite a while. I had this setup on a prior tank and worked great.
Tell us a bit more about your planned setup. Either way good luck to you, with a 5k gph pump you are probably planning a very nice tank! :happyfish
acrylic51
Active Member
Not a big issue on power consumption......If you need a pump that size and running the Sequence pump you won't hurt the pump by throttling it down with a valve. The pumps are designed to handle that very situation, and to boot, if they are throttle down they cause the motors to downspin, and your energy consumption would be reduced again, because the motor isn't spinning as fast.
I bet if you sit and compare to lesser quality pumps running the same system vs 1 Sequence pump the energy consumption would be less running the bigger Sequence pump. There really isn't a need to run 2 smaller pumps in case of failure. Pumps just don't fail out of the blue like people lead to believe....Usually something causes the failure and there are warning signs. Maintenance is a must for pumps to function properly and efficiently as well......
I do however have a backup plumbed inline in my system just in case a pump would go out I just flip a switch and the pump takes over for the main pump till I can pull the main off line and see what is wrong. Your tank could go easily 24hrs without power and most of us have someone watching are systems when away.........I run a Hammerhead and dead quiet to boot!!!!!!! :happyfish
I bet if you sit and compare to lesser quality pumps running the same system vs 1 Sequence pump the energy consumption would be less running the bigger Sequence pump. There really isn't a need to run 2 smaller pumps in case of failure. Pumps just don't fail out of the blue like people lead to believe....Usually something causes the failure and there are warning signs. Maintenance is a must for pumps to function properly and efficiently as well......
I do however have a backup plumbed inline in my system just in case a pump would go out I just flip a switch and the pump takes over for the main pump till I can pull the main off line and see what is wrong. Your tank could go easily 24hrs without power and most of us have someone watching are systems when away.........I run a Hammerhead and dead quiet to boot!!!!!!! :happyfish
mflamb
New Member
Thanks for the pump advice. I have a 300 gal coming form Glass Cages. Unfortunately it won't arrive until Sept 30. In the mean time, my furniture is being built by a local cabinet shop. That gives me plenty of time to plan and prepare my system. I had a 75 reef for about 7 years, a 125 meat eater for 6 years prior to moving to Florida. We had a house built here and now it's time to bring the ocean indoors again. I will use about 350 lbs of rock, a wet/dry sump with skimmer. That's what the pump will return. I will use a fuge with a much lower return rate. The tank will have 3 overflows, 2 plumbed to the sump and 1 with a higher level plumbed to the fuge. The fuge will have overflow gravity plumbed to the sump for protection. Still working on lights. Probably power compacts and halides for about 1600 watts. I want reef fish...tangs and more tangs...to start with. It should be about Christmas when the first one goes in. I'll cycle with rock and then put a variety of damsels/chromis for about 6 weeks to make sure all is well. I'm sure it will be about a year before the first corals go in. I'm a patient guy.