just bought a drilled 110g need setup help

its been awhile since ive been on here, ive been running a 20 nano reef and 55 gallon reef for the past few years but i finally decided to go bigger so i picked up a 110g with two predrilled overflow boxes and a 40 gallon breeder sump. i am familiar with sump set ups but not to a large scale. what im trying to figure out is what size return pump i need? gph? head height from the sump to tank is almost 5ft. also sump is drilled as well and has a bulkhead on the side could this be for a return pump? sorry for all the questions i just wanna get this thing set up. Thanks!

 

Pic of the sump would help and general idea of how you were thinking of setting it up.
Depending on the amount of sections in the sump and your intentions are really what will dictate if you go internal or external. Just because there is a bulkhead does not mean you need to use it for return pump or anything for that matter.

 

It currently has one section that separates the return side from the rest of the sump. At the other end it has a removable bioball container that I'm going to replace with a filter sock. I do have future plans of putting a refuge in it so I would like to keep that in mind when purchasing a pump

 

IMO, internal pumps are the way to go. If it starts to leak it is only going to leak into your sump. As far as how much gph, look into the DC pumps which have a controller so you will have a range to work with. I recently bought a Jebao DC9000 which has max 2377 gph but they do have 3 other models which should fit your application. They are also fairly inexpensive as far as return pumps go as well. mine was just over $100 from amazon.

 

I can't get your picture to load, but front he thumbnail it looks like the bulkhead is up high. I agree that internal pumps are probably the best in this application and cheap too. A lot of people have gone to the DC pumps and have been happy with them, at least in terms of price and flow, plus they don't add heat like the AC powered pond master pumps do. The amount of flow you need depends on a lot of things, particularly what you want to keep in the tank. Remember that all the flow does not need to be from your return pump but is a combination between the return and the powerheads you have. The volume of your return is really dictated by what your overflows can handle without becoming overly noisy.That being said, getting a pump that is larger than what you need is certainly ok because you can put a valve on the outlet side and adjust to your needs without hurting the pump. To put things in perspective, I have a 60 gallon cube with a single 3/4 inch Durso type overflow and I am using a Mag 7 pump which is gaited back a fairly significant amount. Hope this helps and keep us updated on what you do!

 

Thanks for all the responses, I think I'm gonna go the adjustable DC pump route, I will be using koralia pumps so as for the amount of flow in the tank from the return I'm not too concerned with but I do like the idea of being able to crank up my return pump if the koralias were to some weird reason fail, the previous owner called me today and gave me a rio 1700 2340lph pump that he was using for the return, so I'm gonna try to get a pump rated somewhere around that.

 

How is the quality of the jebao brand pumps? I'm not familiar with the name

 

I have had 2 Jebao wp 25 for about 9 months and a DC9000 for 2 months and have had no issues with them at all. They have tons of flow for a pretty decent price.

 

what are your plans for the sump? if you are planning refugium you don't want a ton of flow going through that.

 

i plan on doing a refuge setup in the sump since its fairly large i was looking at the DC3000 by jebao, what are some opinions of this, would that be a suitable pump for the setup?