Upgrading to Mag 18

I am with the Bog-meister on this one. A Mag-7 would do you just fine. You don't want the water cruising through the sump too quickly. I aim for five to seven times. Currently, on my 90g, I am running a Rio2100+, which is the cheaper version of the Mag-7

 

Hey DoTheEvo I actually have that overflow and the one aboveCS150=1600GPH been gonna be using it on the 2nd 125 I'll be stting up in a couple of months which will be my first reef figure by then should have decent savings for setup plus kids will be back in school can work in peace.

 

I'll tell you what, I have the same DT as you and have a Magdrive 18 fully open( ball valve ) going through the DT and the refugium/sump and have no problems with Nh3, No2, No3 and Po4 or any other element. And the skimmer still gets alot of skimate. My hugh ball of cheato and mangroves are still growing strong. To all who think that a refugium needs to have a slow flow, I will disagree with you guys on this topic.;D


Luna

 

I know I'm not John

Do you see any benefits from running that much water through the sump?

These are the cons I'm aware of with running a larger pump:
Can make for noisier plumbing/overflows.
Adds more heat to the tank. Not necessarily bad in all cases but is bad for me, and this will vary person to person depending on climate and type/amount of lighting etc.
Uses more electricity (more $).

Not trying to argue or be a pain, I'm just interested in any opinions on why running a large return pump is a good thing and worth the extra heat/cost/noise. Maybe none of those things are issues for you, I don't know. ;D

 

This is what I posted on another thread that you also posted on.....


All systems and exp's are all different. What works for Joe doesnt work for Mo. You have to find what works for your system. I also have a Magdrive 18(open fully) on a 90 DT and a 55g refugium/sump combo and if most of you would see the flow I have running through the refugium, I think that your eyes would pop out of your heads. I dont know for sure, but if I had to guess, I would say that theres between 900-1200 GPH flow through the refugium. For some/most ppl, thats too much, but its working for me. My Nh3, No2, No3 and Po4 are all at zero. As I said before, you have to find what will work for you. Good luck. Luna


I chose this method b/c I didnt want 3-6 powerheads inside the DT and another one for the return-pump(RP). I run my Magdrive 18 as a RP which also feeds other pieces of equipment, like a media canister(carbon), was going to install a coil denitrator, but never did b/c my No3 went from 20ppm to zero. The positive aspect about having one large pump is running different pieces of equipment with that one pump instead of running multiple pumps. I only have two pumps in my system, one for the RP and the other for the skimmer. The noise?..........what noise? I cant hear a thing.
As for the heat issue, I dont see any, infact, I need a heater at times.
Like I said before, what may work for me, may not work for you.


Luna

 

I lose track of some of threads I post in, sorry!

That makes sense, it's not just a return pump. That's also less flow than a lot of people use in their tanks overall, depending on what they're keeping, including powerheads. Not that there's anything wrong with that decision! Like you said, do what works for your system, understanding the repercussions, good and bad, of your decision is good.