Quote Originally Posted by bstreep View Post
It's not unusual for drains to not drain their rate numbers. Look at a couple of things:

Are your drains clear, clean and do they run straight? You MAY be able to help your drain volume by putting larger plumbing in. Any elbows will significantly slow your flow.

Are you draining efficiently? How are your drains set up? Do you have a durso on them? Do they "burp" or does air get trapped?

The Rio problem was more hype than anything. I had one melt down in a bucket - my fault, it ran dry - and the owner of TAAM, the manufacturer, assured me that they had intentionally polluted a reef tank with a pump that they had melted down. He also sent me 2 new pumps after I sent him mine back (he wanted to look at it). It's just epoxy.
Get Durosos in.

Or,

Search silencers on Premium aquatics. Very quite and even more flow than a home made Duroso. I think they're about $40 but well worth it.

Another option is to use both drilled holes in overflow as drains and route the return plumbing just up the back side of the tank hidden by overflow. Just make sure the top tip is not very deep in to your tank or it will siphon too much at power out.

Todd