Return pump for 72 Gal

mrmoses

Member
I have 72 gallon bow front that I am making SW. I do not want to have any equipment inside the tank at all. Can I have enough power in my return pump that I will not need any additional powerheads? Also, can you have too much current? Is it possible that your return pump might pump into the tank faster then the tank drains?
 

mr_x

Active Member
you most certainly can have more flow than the overflows can handle. IMO, you need atleast one good powerhead. two would be ideal. try a mag9.5 and a koralia 4, or better yet, a modded mj1200. see how that goes for you.
btw, some powerhead manufacturers make rock-looking covers for their powerheads. it's like camouflage for powerheads.
 
R

rkhlk

Guest
I recently added a sump to my tank and was not sure as to what size return pump to get, so i brought one that was definately bigger than i needed and when i did the plumbing i added a "tee" in the plumbing with a ball valve that dump the extra water back into the sump to keep the display tank from overflowing. it really wasn't hard to do and also kinda easy to balance out the amount of water coming out of the tank to the amount of water going back into the tank.
 

mr_x

Active Member
or you could find out how many gph your overflows are rated for and purchase your pump accordingly. you can also chock back pumps with a ball valve. just make sure the ball valve is at the pump's exhaust, not at it's intake.
 

natclanwy

Active Member
If this is a fish only tank having just the flow from the return pump would probably work good, but if it is reef tank then it's really tough to get adequete flow throughout your tank with just the return off of your sump like Mr. X said you will probably need to add an additional powerhead. The other way to do this would be to setup a closed loop and either drill the back of the tank or use a pvc frame above the tank to distribute the flow.
 
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