90 Gallon Plumbing

[fishboss]

Hey guys I am planning on setting up a 90 gallon reef tank but i am confused on what size my plumbing should be for it. I have read that you should have 10x the water of your dt going through your sump and that would be 900 gallons. but a one inch bulk head doesnt produce that much so what should i do is a one inch bulk head enough?

 

[acrylic51]

General rule of thumb is 3x-5x turnover rate through your sump.......So a 1" bulkhead would be adequate in my thinking which isn't always logical!!!!!!

 

[2quills]

10x might be a little bit much to push through some sumps. On small sumps having a high turnover rate can just cause issues with microbubles shooting up through your display and clouding the water. I'd shoot for about half of that if you're going for something in the 40g range for a sump and probably less if you're going with something like a 20g sump.
So 1" is adequate if you stay on the smaller side but it doesn't leave a lot of forgiveness if that's you're only drain.

 

[snakeblitz33]

I suggest looking at running about 500gph through your sump. It's easy if you buy a Danner Mag Drive 7. I have a Mag 9 on my 75g tank and I have it throttled back to run at about 500gph through my sump - and will most likely replace my oversized pump with a smaller one and sell what I have now. I have a 20g long sump - and 500-700gph is pretty much all it can handle without introducing microbubbles into the display tank.
Truly think about how much 500g of water is... that's about ten 55g barrels! That's plenty of flow through a sump per hour.
The bigger your return pump is, the larger your sump should be... keep that in mind.
I also recommend using PVC instead of vinyl.

 

[xcali1985]

There is no set answer on this, as it also depends on the media that you run in your sump. Some marco algaes require higher flows. Some slower. In general the way I have mine set up is a smooth steady flow, not enough to create waves, however, not enough that "sludge" builds on the surface or food settles in the sumps. I will say it is better to purchase a slightly bigger pump and throttle back then purchase a smaller pump and have to upgrade.
In addition you have to factor in headloss.

 

[2quills]

Just gotta be careful on the single 1" drain. 500gph is pushing it a little close to the maximum 600gph safety limit of a 1" open channel drain. But with the right planning and if you take steps to protect your drain from clogs or blockages you should be fine.

 

[fishboss]

Thank You guys