Shopping for: external pumps.

[captexas]

Plus Ampmaster pumps are known to have more problems with them than Sequence, usually seals going bad unless you pay the extra $$$ for an "abrasion resistant" seal.

[caferacermike]

Here is a sketch of my plans. After seeing Brewer's sketch I was inspired (and rained out of my camping vacation) so I drew up the plan I had in my head for the fuge/sump/skimmer/Dart idea I was kicking around. It is only a representation of the actual set up as there are actually 2 overflows and other such nonsense. The plan is to have the tank water fall from the tank at a rate of about 1,200GPH into the filter sock, over the bubble trap under the mix gate and over the second bubble trap into the pump chamber. From the pump it's back up to the tank and into the skimmer as well, it is a recirculating type Euroreef so it needs an external pump supply. The 2 valves are to control the water flow into the skimmer and tank. It is not meant to restrict the pump at all, only direct the flow to where I want it. The goal is for about 1,200gph to head back to the tank and around 1,000GPH to visit the skimmer. From the skimmer I was thinking of either placing the return back to the beginning of the fuge so it can circulate twice or maybe place it in the pump chamber thereby decreasing the flow through the fuge to 1,200GPH but allowing the pump to work at full capacity.

Any ideas? Worthless plan?

[captexas]

Nice drawing. I don't see why it wouldn't work. On the 240g tank I was setting up awhile back, I decided to use 2 separate pumps instead of one like you show. I just had two bulkheads on the sump at the return area to feed the main return pump and the skimmer feed pump. I decided to do that so I could keep the return flow to the tank stable if I decided to boost/reduce the feed supply to the skimmer. On the skimmer feed pump, I put a tee and valves with one line feeding the skimmer and the other line draining back into the sump. That way if I wanted to reduce the pressure going to the skimmer I could just drain the excess flow back to the sump without having to put back pressure on the pump. Hope that makes sense! lol

Make sure you put valves with unions on the input and at the output of the return pump. This will make it much easier to remove the pump for cleaning and to replace it if needed. Many of the tanks I have seen and even setup myself were missing that and it becomes a pain in the arse to work on the pump if needed.

[KyleV]

Nice