+Jakedoza Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 So as some of you may know I am setting up a reef tank for the first time and am researching and getting the equipment to do it. My uncle replaces lights for a living and gets ballasts for pretty much nothing.. so he gave me two HO T5 ballasts.. woo hoo! Now I can get bulbs and I have light. While we were in his garage looking for the ballasts I ran across a sump pump that was in the corner... To make a long story short he gave me the pump too.. The Pump is a Dayton 1XHV6.. Here are the specs...http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/1XHV6 Now, I have a 135 gallon aquarium and the specs say that this pump pushes 46 GPM at 10ft head, which is about what it will be.. 2760 GPH. That means that my tank will turn over 20 times in an hour.. From what I have read, this is ok, but I would like to get some other opinions. I will have to add more to the sump system like a 20 gal aquarium, but I do have a CPR CY194 Cyclone Bio Filter for a protein skimmer. I am going to drill the tank, but I don't know what size I should drill.. I was thinking 1.5". Thanks for opinions and advice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayneb Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 I'd be worried about putting a cast iron bodied pump into saltwater. wayneb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted January 17, 2010 Author Share Posted January 17, 2010 hmm.... didn't think about that.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dapettit Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 Good point Wayne. My concern, on top of the cast iron, is flow through your sump. I had a mag 18 originally on my 150 w/ 50 gallon sump and the flow through the sump couldn't keep up. Instead of using a ball valve to restrict the flow I went to a mag 7 and the flow is perfect. Also not sure how much heat the pump would generate. Just my two cents. . . Dave- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muddybluewater Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 I would not use that pump, it is a septic pump and not made for a sw tank. A 1 1/2" drain pipe will handle up to 1200gph. Stick with pumps designed for aquarium use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexKilpatrick Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 My philosophy is that you don't need to have more flow through your sump that your skimmer outputs. For example, let's say you skimmer outputs 100 Gal/hour. That means it can only take in 100 gal/hour. If you have more flow than that through your sump, you have more flow than you need. You can use something like a vortech in the tank to handle all the flow needed in the tank without having to have a huge pump shooting water through your sump at 1200 Gal/hour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted January 17, 2010 Author Share Posted January 17, 2010 oh well, thanks for the replies... maybe I can sell it on craigslist to put towards a pump... anyone need a sump pump?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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