Need some one with experience setting up Aquarium

[Brenden]

Need some one with experience setting up Aquarium.
Skimmer, UV, wet/dry etc. If you are willing to let me call and ask you some questions please send me a private message.

 

[RLG2182]

What questions did you have?

 

[Brenden]

first can I have one lage pump and do away with 3 small ones?
http://www.imagehosting.us/imagehosting/showimg.jpg/?id=484336

 

[RLG2182]

I suppose you could, if you had enough ball valves and a powerful enough pump. I would highly discourage this though. If the pump failed, you would be out for all three units. Secondly, it would be next to impossible to determine how much GPH you were getting out of each ball valve w/o some kind of way to measure it digitally/analog. If your UV runs off of a certain GPH, you'd be playing guesswork with how much water was run through it. Same for the skimmer.

If I were you, I would simply have a dedicated pump for each unit, unless you had a concrete 100% way to determine water flow for each ball valve. HTH

 

[Brenden]

with deticated pumps for each I still need a larger return pump? around the 3000gph range?

 

[RLG2182]

You don't need your main return pump to do all of the water turnover. Your Powerheads will add to the 10 x ~~ 20 x totals. With a tank that large, I would make sure to have a large return pump, but also several PH's as well.

The idea is redundancy... a few small things is more reliable than one huge thing. If that huge thing breaks, you'll have to wait to replace it and will possibly run into problems with the health of your tank. If one small one fails, it'll impact your system less than a catastrophic failure.

 

[Brenden]

can the pump going to the skimmer also return the water to the tank?

 

[Brenden]

also does skimmer need intake before or after trickle filter?

 

[gooyferret]

The skimmer you should put after the trickle filter....Although why you running a trickle filter in your sump for that large of a tank? With how much LR and other natural filtration that you will have you will not need a trickle filter which are generally used for bio-balls. IMO i would not even use the trickle filter. I would run a seperate tank for a refugium that would then filter down to another tank for your return, and protein skimmer, also UV. The skimmer pump should only be used for the skimmer not for return, you will want the skimmer to run at maximum effeciency with the pump that the manufacture recommends.

with deticated pumps for each I still need a larger return pump? around the 3000gph range?

Personally i would have one large return pump for the sump, and T it off to other locations in the tank. Also you might want to consider doing a closed loop system for that large of a tank, that will give you the water flow you will want, and not have to have the ugly look of PH in your tank. Any other questions feel free to ask. Heres a good website i recommend that you look at: www.oregonreef.com

HTH
Garrett