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Which Return Pumps? Deep Dimension 300 with Downstairs Sump


22bfan

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I recently agreed to purchase a Marineland Deep Dimension 300 tank with stand and am really looking forward to getting it set up. I'm in need of some advice when it comes to flow and return pumps. The display tank will be on the first floor with a sump room in the basement underneath. My basement has 9ft ceilings, floor trusses are 12", Monteray stand height 29", Tank height 27" = Roughly 15' of rise.

 

Any idea how much flow the DD 300 needs out of its return pumps?

 

Any recommendations for return pumps that fit that criteria?

 

Thanks in advance!

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Flow needed, hmmm...kinda subjective depending on corals, skimmer ratings, and what else you are using to generate flow in the display. The stick overflows will have a max rating with confirming, but you should also look on RC at the headloss calculator to get a sense of how much head your plumbing will equate to.

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For a returned pump, you need 2X - 3X of the display volume. So it will give your skimmer enough time to take out the waste. however, you need stronger circulate flow like ecotech mp40 pumps for your tanks

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For flow in the display i will have a Gyre 150.

The overflow from the display will gravity flow down to a 40 gallon skim chamber which will house the Reef Octopus SRO6000SSS which has a 480GPH pump. From the skim chamber, water will gravity flow into a 100 gallon stock tank acting as a refugium with sand, rock, and macro algae. From the refugium water will gravity flow into either a 100 gallon or a 50 gallon tank which will serve as the return pump chamber. This chamber will only have 6-8" of water in it unless the pumps fail and excess water from the display makes its way downstairs.

 

Im more then open to any comments or advice on the setup listed above. I'm not the smartest man in the room when it comes to large tank setup. This is my first.

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Yes make sure your last tank can handle all water from all thanks that will feed it. As far as return pump I would use a external pump like dart to handle the head pressure you may burn up/ not get significant flow with any reg return pump reg DC. Even a dc12000 is only rated for 20ft of head pressure.

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Look at the reef octopus water blaster. Hy16000

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

Barry looks like that is only good for just a tad over 16ft of head pressure and even at around 12ft it looks to be about 525gph an max output
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Barry-Can you confirm overflow pipe diameter? I talked to someone at bulk reef supply who mentioned the 300 should have 1" pipes able to handle 800 gph each (1600) total. He recommended external pumps just like khh27 said. A pair of 150PS-Pan World pumps were what he specced. I like to buy from BRS but the guy i chatted with was trying to recommend products before i even finished explaining my set up. Not sure what to think.

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Also, calculate how much evap from the pump chamber (last) tank will register enough drop to kick on your ato. The smaller or more vertical this compartment is will make your ato operate with more system sensitivity and keep your salinity more stable.

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Barry-Can you confirm overflow pipe diameter? I talked to someone at bulk reef supply who mentioned the 300 should have 1" pipes able to handle 800 gph each (1600) total. He recommended external pumps just like khh27 said. A pair of 150PS-Pan World pumps were what he specced. I like to buy from BRS but the guy i chatted with was trying to recommend products before i even finished explaining my set up. Not sure what to think.

Yes those are max #s but doesn't mean that's where you need to be at. A healthy 7-900 is where I think you need to be at. You don't need to get almost 5.5x return rate your equipment will never be able to keep up. An I would only recommend 1 pump something like a iwaki MD-55RLT or similar just first thing that came to mind. And gate valve it to give you about 8-900 at tank. Other wise you'll probably have a mini power station for your return. Lol
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Run returns over the top or drill the back for them and convert the two in each box into herbie overflows. 8) Then you can push basically as much as you want through the overflow pipes.

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Run returns over the top or drill the back for them and convert the two in each box into herbie overflows. 8) Then you can push basically as much as you want through the overflow pipes.

This is ideal imo. Wish i knew of this before. I believe both the drain and return bulkheads are 1"

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

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I had two reeflo hammerheads, one running a 60 tank 1 story up and 60 feet away as well as an entire manifold and the other running a 270 directly above.  they are great pumps for head applications.  I took down the smaller tank and now run the 270 as well as a manifold off the one.  Actually have the other pump in my closet.  If you're interested, shoot me a pm. 

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I had two reeflo hammerheads, one running a 60 tank 1 story up and 60 feet away as well as an entire manifold and the other running a 270 directly above. they are great pumps for head applications. I took down the smaller tank and now run the 270 as well as a manifold off the one. Actually have the other pump in my closet. If you're interested, shoot me a pm.

Yea that's a BIGBOY pump. Lol
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The herbie oveflow setup seems like it would drain about half of your tank water into the sump if power goes out or pump failure. Otherwise it looks like it would be really quiet and easy to regulate flow

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Not unless you don't have an overflow box holding the pipes. It does drain down to the top of the full siphon pipe, for sure.

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Not unless you don't have an overflow box holding the pipes. It does drain down to the top of the full siphon pipe, for sure.

+1 The waterline in the overflow should be an inch or so above the full siphon pipe.

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Right.  It can actually be all the way at the bottom of your overflow box if you want, but then you better really trust your overflox box to hold out all the water.  If the 300DD has a "corner-flo" overflow box which also has the extra slots halfway down the box then you definitely want to have the full siphon pipe end up above those slots. 8) 

 

Some people like to still put two elbows on the top of the full siphon because if you have an open pipe you can get a vortex forming on top of it pretty easily which will suck air into the sump and make noise and bubbles.

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Cool.

Just so I understand this correctly the herbie overflow method consists of two drain pipes.  The first, called and Emergency drain, would have its stand pipe about 1/2" below the top of the overflow baffle.  The second, or main drain pipe, should be 6" below the Emergency drain and have a ball valve somewhere to regulate/adjust flow.  

 

I picked up the tank this past weekend and see that there are 2 corner overflows, each with 2 holes for bulk head plumbing (4 - total).  Assuming 2 of the holes are used to feed return water back to the tank, the would leave 2 holes for overflow plumbing.  For the herbie method, would both overflow pipes need to be on the same side?  Or could/should I put the emergency drain on one corner and the main drain on the other?

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Also I'm still very confused about how much water I should be pushing through the returns which will dictate my return pump sizing.  Is there any reason I would want to run as much return flow as dual corner herbie method overflows could handle?  Seems like it would be tuff to have a true refugium (unless it was massive) with that much water flow.  As well it seems like it would be tough to give enough contact time in the skimmer with water flowing through that fast.  Thoughts? 

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Run returns over the top or drill the back for them and convert the two in each box into herbie overflows. 8) Then you can push basically as much as you want through the overflow pipes.

I'll second on drilling the tank for the returns but skip herbies altogether and use all 4 overflow holes with durso drains. Just as quiet if done right. 

Where the water exits the pipes, you'll still need something to dampen the noise since it's falling 12 or so feet.

I'd use a Reeflo external pump and use the additional power to supply water to a manifold to power various devices- skimmer feed, fuge flow, reactors, etc.

I'd also recommend that you have one central sump rather than the gravity fed staircase setup you've envisioned.

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Thanks  for the Reeflo recommendation.  More specifically, which model do you think would work best for my application?

 

I'm hesitant to drill the tank.  Would it be smart to send a single vertical pipe to a manifold behind the tank which would split off into 6 over the back return feeds, each with ball valves to adjust individual flow?

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