Pump advice

[scgator]

I want to do a fuge, but the only place I can put it is about 3 feet below my display. Can anyone suggest a pump that can return the water 3 feet vertically? What gph should I look for or is there a better indicator? I don't have alot of cash to experiment so want to get the right pump on the first try. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
:notsure:

 

[hnf2k]

well i just did exactly what youre about to do. i have a mag drive 5. how magic carp was able to give you an answer i have no idea. you should decide on the pump by the size of your tank and also your overflow. you want to keep the GPH the same as your overflow. i have a 65 gallon tank and chose a mag drive 5. my overflow is rated at 300 gph and my pump is around the same. i chose a mag 5 cause i wanted slow water movement through my fuge. a mag 7 would be pushing a lot more water through it.

 

[hnf2k]

what size is his tank and how many gph is his overflow rated for?
my overflow with a mag 7 or 9.5 would be overflowing my tank. as it is with my mag 5 i have to have a ball valve to slow down the flow.

 

[hnf2k]

no, but i didnt tell him to buy a mag 7 or 9.5

 

[scgator]

Thank you for the advice. My tank is a 46 bow front, but I do not have an overflow. Do I need one for this to work? I thought that all I needed was a way for the water to get down to the 'fuge and back up again. Can I make an overflow or do I need to buy one?
Me thinks my simple project just got much less simple, but I want to do this right.
I'll do a search on the message board to see what I can find on overflows, but would greatly appreciate your thoughts.
Once again Thank you for your time and trouble and sorry for starting an argument. I value ALL your counsel. Differing view points bring a greater wealth of ideas and should be embraced.
Thanks,
SCgator

 

[kistheeze]

by vertue of the way you want to set up your refugium it becomes the sump for your system and will require you to create an overflow. Think about it - you're pumping water into the main tank - it needs to find it's way back to the lower tank somehow.
To simplify it - you could just mount the refugium over the tank. Then in effect your tank becomes the lowest water line level and act's as the sump for the system. In this case, a powerhead would probably suffice for waterflow. Of course in this situation you would need an overflow in the refugium......
Good luck.

 

[sly]

Better not mess with Magic Carp... He's Rick James Bit@h!

 

[adhoc]

I also have a 46 gallon bowfront with a sump beneath. I use a Mag 5 pump in my sump to return to my tank. My pump discharge goes up about 3 feet, and goes thru 4 elbows.
I tried making my own overflow, the box itself was working fine but the tubing I used didn't. I was using soft tubing that would collapse and/or crack over the course of a month, restricting flow back to my sump which would pump dry. Not a cool situation, over pumped my tank once and filled it with bubbles as my pump cavitated and sucked air a number of times. To compensate I bypassed a lot of my pump discharge back to my sump, and really defeated the whole purpose.
I finally sucked it up and went to my LFS to buy an overflow. It's made by Proclear Aquatic Systems, has a single clear hard-plastic overflow tube. It handles the full flow of my Mag-5 pump perfectly, it maintains a high enough velocity that air bubbles don't get trapped in the top of the U. The only dislike I have for it is the collection reservior in the tank is huge.
It's still a pretty simple project, don't get discouraged.