Gph needed for return pump on sump

bensoo00

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Hello! I have built a diy overflow box as well as weir and sump. 29 gallons tank and 10 gallon sump. Here are some pictures and roughly the return should have like 10 inches of horizontal travel through pvc and then like 2 ft-ish vertical travel. What gph would I need? I built it diy so I am unaware on how to calculate the incoming water volume.

The two pipes in the photo are both for incoming water to the sump, not return.

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Cichlid Dad

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Hello, how will you be doing the return. You must calculate head space each 90 deg turn is 1 foot so add all of the 90's and number of feet from return pump to tank. How many gallons can your over flow handle. Look at return pumps and calculate actual return volume. For example my 75 gallon uses a 1000 gph return pump but at the tank it's only about 500gph The protein skimmer you have will only give you trouble and headaches Imo. And yes I have that skimmer.
 
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bensoo00

bensoo00

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Hello, how will you be doing the return. You must calculate head space each 90 deg turn is 1 foot so add all of the 90's and number of feet from return pump to tank. How many gallons can your over flow handle. Look at return pumps and calculate actual return volume. For example my 75 gallon uses a 1000 gph return pump but at the tank it's only about 500gph The protein skimmer you have will only give you trouble and headaches Imo. And yes I have that skimmer.
Gotcha, thanks for the advice! If you don’t mind me asking, what’s wrong with the skimmer? Just curious what kind of problems it has or causes!
 

Cichlid Dad

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Gotcha, thanks for the advice! If you don’t mind me asking, what’s wrong with the skimmer? Just curious what kind of problems it has or causes!
When you remove the top to clean it turns the water level then you have to reset it. It will take you 5 minutes each time you clean it. To change water level, you turn the cap. Also really does not skim all that well
 

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