I'm back, and its Joe as you must know. and you are ?
First lest's remember this is your sump/refuge not mine. You need to make the final determination on your equipment.
IMO hobbyists get to caught up on turn over rates for there sump/refuges. While it is important it is not paramount in keeping a vibrant aquarium. IMO what is more important is water movement within the tank. This movement is accomplished via power heads (proper placement ) I personally like a slower turn over rate from my tank through my refuge simply because I feel it allows my sand/mud and caulerpa longer contact time with nutrients in my tank water. I assume you are using a submersible pump. If so you need not worry about inlet pipe size to the pump. Now all we really are looking at is resistance on the outlet side of the pump. This resistance comes in the form of how high we have to pump he water and any friction we encounter via elbows and fittings.
If we want to get scientific the total dynamic head pressure is Vertical (static head) +friction lost due to the pipe +fittings+valves+ any other restrictions
So lets start with the distance from the top of the water in sump to the return pipes in your tank. (and yes its from the top of the water in your sump and NOT from the return pump)
now we need pipe size. you would want a pipe size of 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 IMO.
HANG ON I found it go to this link put in your info and you will get your head loss.
http://www.reefcentral.com/calc/hlc2.php
PS just give me the distance from your influent into your tank to the height of the water in your sump
I'm not sure how to plan the plumbing for the sump? I guess I'll just figure it out and post what I come up with.
you want as straight a shot into your tank as you can get. the piping from your overflow to your sump/refuge is not that critical
