return pump on a 90

[Jrodriguez682]

im purchasing a eheim 1260 for use as a return for my drilled 90 gal reef. about a four foot rise. would this be powerful enough to only have to use two additional powerheads in my tank. if so how many GPH should the powerheads be?. does the diameter of the return tube matter when choosing a return pump or just the rise? never used a sump before. and never had a tank this big

 

[ColaAddict]

It depends on how much your overflow can handle. the 1260 might be too powerful for a 90gallon, if you are going to use it, make sure you install a ball valve so you can slow down the flow back to your tank and prevent an overflow.
You will probably be fine with a pump going 900/hr rating, but again, it all depends on how much your overflow can handle.

 

[Cubbies]

I personally use a Quiet One 4000 and it works perfectly. As for flow in powerheads it all depends and what you are going to have in your tank and the amount of flow your tank and you personally like. If you have SPS dominant you can have tons of flow but if you have softies or specially LPS you might want to limit the flow as you don't want to tear the flesh from them.

 

[MMreef]

I use Eheim 1262 on my 120 and it is just perfect.I don't think 1260 will be too much for your 90.The 1260 has 635 gph output at 0 head,so most likely you will be pushing 450-500 gph. I like my return pump to turn the tank water volume about 5x per hour through my sump.

 

[BADGUS]

I agree with mark,the 1260 will be fine,a quiet one 3000/4000 is also a great choice.

 

[FishBeard]

What size return piping and how many elbows, both 90 and 45 degree ones are going to be used for your return line? It's very easy to calculate your output gph from the pump with this info.

To be honest, it's not always best to have tons of flow thru your sump, lower flow will allow your protein skimmer to operate more efficiently, and if you have a pass-thru refugium before your return pump, you want to have low flow thru that area anyways.

If you want more display tank flow but don't like the obtrusive look of multiple powerheads, you can always look into drilling for a closed loop system with an external pump to draw water right from your display and pump it right back into the tank, without any sort of sump or filtration system involved.

 

[Jrodriguez682]

i have my tank pre drilled on the bottom. i have the the overflow and return pipes coming up from there. both are 1" in diameter. i will have a refugium & remora pro skimmer(hang on) with a mag 5 in the sump. im hoping to use a flex hose or something to hook up the return and supply from tank. that way i dont need any 90s or 45s.

 

[kurens]

i got my Eheim 1260 in my 100g open wide on ball valve.

 

[SkullV]

I run a 1262 on my 75g. About 75% goes to the tank and 25% goes to the biopellet reactor.