Water size return pump?

I have 180 gallon tank with 2 1" overflows running down into a 55 gallon sump/ refugium. The return lines are also 1" and split into two in each overflow box....so a total of 4 returns in the main tank. I was thinking 2 mag 12 or 2 rio 4100....1 for each return. I'm worrying about the heat genereated from these pumps. Could I get away with 1 pump into the 2 returns? Or perhaps 2 smaller pumps like the mag 9. My sump is a glass tank, and I really don't want to drill holes in it for an external pump. Any ideas? Thanks

 

You could run a single Mag 24 and split it. I run one slightly restricted on my setup.

 

You run the mag 24 without a chiller?

 

I've never really understood the reasoning behind multiple returns unless your tank is pretty low flow and you have some dead spots.

IMO I would just put one return on, use the rest for drains/emergency drains (google "herbie method" for the best drain system out there ). I also think you could get by with a mag 12 or maybe 18 if you have a lot of head loss from your plumbing.

Unless you're using your return pump for something other than just circulating water to the display tank you don't need a huge pump for that, 5 times the tank volume is a good guide for the amount needed for your return pump to push.

 

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This is a good system too but I feel it's a little overkill.I'm not sure as to how you think its overkill?
I might consider it on a really large system Atpase has a 180gl thats a pritty large system
where putting another couple hundred into plumbing isn't as big of a deal As for a couple of hundread in parts I don't know were your shopping but maybee its time for a change if your paying that kind of money for PVC fittings
lots of space for all the holes you need.It's arready got a few holes drilled in it and maybee they are drilled in a faverable place to run the Beanamimal overflow.
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The best part of the Bean is the Silent opperation and safty features .
It will also support a wide range of flows.

 

Best sump design and return info. This guys stuff is great!
Melevsreef.com | Acrylic Sumps & Refugiums

 

First of all, don't take this personally, just offering my opinion, also sorry for the sorta off-topic discussion. Also my comment on the BeanAnimal design was just a general criticism not necessarily related to the OP, in fact it might actually be a good system for the OP.

But to address your points I feel it's overkill because silent, accomodating a large range of flows, and 99% failsafe is accomplished with the Herbie method with less plumbing.

The BeanAnimal setup is more failsafe and requires slightly less "tuning" but only by a small margin IMO for the amount of plumbing/work it is to setup on most tanks. Obviously everyone's level of safety/paranoia is different so I'm just saying that's where my level is, it also depends exactly on the tank setup, that method works better on some systems than others.

As for cost, I did exaggerate a little bit for most people's systems but it could get expensive if your sump is located a good distance from the display, this again was a general criticism. However, every drain line (except some emergency drains) IMO should at least have a true union ball valve on it which is $20-30 (depending if you need 1" or 1.5") itself if you use a good quality one, throw in the extra plumbing, bulkhead, maybe some extra PVC fasteners and fittings and I think the BeanAnimal design comes out a decent bit more expensive.

Also IMO 180 is mid-range for size because if you call a 180 large what do you call all the 300 gallon plus tanks out there? Super-size?