return pump recommendations

[greebs]

going to build a sump for my 90 g. planning to do around 25 g for the entire sump/refuge area. it's a new tank that was pre-drilled already. any recommendations on what return pump to purchase that will get me good flow and not too loud. I'd like to have one that I can just submerge in the sump. I'd like to try to stay under $225.00 or so on cost if that's possible but can go higher if needed as I know it will pay off in the long run.
Thanks for any advice.

 

[yerboy]

Using a return pump for "flow" is most times out of the question and will need to be supplemented with powerheads or a closed loop type setup. Without knowing how your tank was drilled and how much water your overflows can handle its hard to make a recommendation. A safe call would to say 700-900gph and submersible pump is that range would be the mag 7 and mag9.5 but there are tons of other choices out there. With a spending limit of $225 i would look into getting a mag 9.5 around $80 and a few koralia 4s for under $40 a pop. But like i said earlier ther are many options you can choose and i just showed you one way that would provide nice flow in your tank, return from your sump all for around $160.

 

[greebs]

thanks for the suggestion. that's definitely in my budget. I do have a couple powerheads in the display tank already along with my h.o.b. skimmer but I'm sure I could upgrade those powerheads.
I saw some online reviews concerning heat put out by the mags but nobody gave any specifics on what they meant by that so not sure how much it might raise water temps but I've got some room to work with as my tank is in basement.
another question about this sump build. my predrilled tank has two holes for the in and out flows. on the drilled overflow area that runs from the display tank to the sump, how far below the water level do you want the top of the pvc piece to be? (I guess I'm not even sure that I'm supposed to run pvc up to collect water to go from the display tank to the sump? Can find lots of pictures of sump plumbing below the display tank level but haven't been able to find any pix of what the plumbing looks like inside the pre-drilled display tank overflow area other than the return to the display tank.)

 

[yerboy]

you dont have to have a pipe in your overflow to collect your water but most people go with whats called a standpipe. That will make your operation much quieter. Maybe this is what your talking about.