From Canister filter to sump. Help please

saraeelove · Nov 21, 2017

Ok so I’m still new to this website and the hobbie.
I have a 40 gallon saltwater tank.. Fish and live rock only.my tank is 4 feet high.

I’ve been using a fluval canister filter and Im honestly fed up with canister filters and wanting to move to sumps.

I have a diy 10 gallon fish tank made to a sump. I just bought a bubble magus 2.5 protein skimmer to go in my sump.
Now for the reason why I am asking for help.
I need a return pump and overflow box.

Any recommendations ?
I am being thrown off with how many GPH I need for my tank.
I was thinking of getting the RIO 12HF hyperflow water pump.
And the marine depot overflow Box OF-800.

Will this work out? I am hoping to have everything running smoothly no overflow mess and I don’t want my new filtration system to be too loud. Some noise is ok.

Any other recommendations if you don’t recommend an overflow box ?
I don’t want to drill holes in my aquarium tank when it’s already up and running.

Benga · Nov 21, 2017

You need to first figure out what your head pressure is going to be. So although your vertical travel is 4 feet your head pressure may actually be more because of horizontal travel, elbows, joints, and all those things.

This is a very useful tool to figure that out.
http://www.reefcentral.com/index.php/head-loss-calculator

Once you find your head pressure you can start looking at pumps and their GPH and the head pressure charts like the one you attached.

I was in a similar situation 40B 20G sump, I think I'll be geting the Quiet One LifeGard 758GPH
As for your overflow box you usually want more than one output just in case one gets clogged or something happens there will be a safety. Most people would suggest drilling the tank and adding a bulkhead and all that. It comes down to user comfort/ability though.

The Eshopps Eclipse S would be a drill the tank type solution, so the holes would be where the bulkheads are, with this you won't have to worry about the siphon failing, and as you can see the red pipe is a nice safety to have if the other one fails and water levels rise.

My 2 cents on the matter, I had a similar thread. My thread if you're interested, don't mind the title though.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/cheap-back-up-return-pump.335818/

Mikhail728 · Nov 21, 2017

I went from HoB filter to sump.

I have a 75g tank non drilled and went with a CPR 100.

Why? because you can add an aqua lifter to pump out air captured in the syphon. If power drops off it can restart syphon. they make aqualifters with replaceable parts to keep reliability higher.