Setting up First time Sump

[YamahaF934]

So now I have a 72 gallon with hang on back skimmer and refugium. I am looking to upgrade to a sump/refugium.

What pump would work best for a return (brand and GPH)?
I am having troubles understanding max head pressure etc.

What overflow is the best (or is it possible/practical to drill the tank and setup up overflow)?

 

[joealbin]

Im using a overflow box and it has a 1 inch bulkhead and that can do about 600gph with a 1 inch hose in it. same if you are going to drill the back. It depends on if the tank is acrylic or glass if the tank is tempered you can not drill it. The down side ot an overflow is that you can lose siphon over time over time but just keep an eye on it. For the pump it depends how high the water you are trying to push up. Im using a rio 12hf and pushing it up a lil over 4 feet. So its about 580 gallons an hour. The manufactures will give you the head heights and the volume it will push at that height. I know people will use magdrive but they create heat so you have to be careful. Thats why I went with the rio hf (hyper flow) series. Compact and no heat or noise. Last thing keep in mind that you want to turnover your tank about 10 times an hour through your overflow, and higher if you are going to be keeping sps corals

 

[Krish]

Take a peek here and see if that helps any http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/f124/all-about-sumps-59756/. The first overflow you see shown in that thread (Eshopps style) is really good in that it never loses it's siphon and doesn't require a pump to maintain it's siphon like a CPR style would. As for return pump, anything in the 600-700 gph range IMO would be good for that size tank. Take a look at the Eheim pumps. They get great ratings by all reefers.

 

[akunochi]

I love Eheim pumps for return pumps due to build quality and silent operation. It is very possible to drill the tank. I got my bit and bulkheads off ebay for about 20 bucks total (5 bulkheads plus the bit). The bit worked well and lasted for about 7 holes.

You can check out my build thread in the showcase forum for my sump/plumbing setup. I highly recommend the bean animal overflow system or herbie overflow system depending on the overflow you go with.