Return pomp strength

tirish · Aug 3, 2026

I have an aquatop 40 gallon cube tank. I currently use the return pump that was included in the tank. I feel like the suction power from the first chamber is not great and possibly lacking. Is this something worth upgrading for better filtration through the AIO chambers in the back or is it not needed. Pics of the current tank

Saltyreef · Aug 3, 2026

Get yourself a jebao dcw.
I just got a dcw1500 for my 20g aio and it flows amazing. You may want to bump up to the next size depeding on your chamber size. Check em out!

edsbeaker · Aug 4, 2026

tirish said:
I have an aquatop 40 gallon cube tank. I currently use the return pump that was included in the tank. I feel like the suction power from the first chamber is not great and possibly lacking. Is this something worth upgrading for better filtration through the AIO chambers in the back or is it not needed. Pics of the current tank

Do you happen to know how many GPH the pump is? Typically, the flow through a sump does not need to be very powerful…around 3-5X the number of gallons in the tank. For a 40 gallon we are talking about 120-200 GPH

The tanks actual flow, created by power heads, is where we want to add the higher flow, usually this is dependant on what corals you are keeping.

guyute1500 · 2026-08-11T20:12:13-0400

edsbeaker said:
Do you happen to know how many GPH the pump is? Typically, the flow through a sump does not need to be very powerful…around 3-5X the number of gallons in the tank. For a 40 gallon we are talking about 120-200 GPH

The tanks actual flow, created by power heads, is where we want to add the higher flow, usually this is dependant on what corals you are keeping.

i recently got an old aquatop eco 28 and I have the same question as tirish. My questions edsbeaker is does it matter if tirish is running a skimmer or a fuge, and does that make a difference? Slower flow for the macro to work or whatever.

Saltyreef · 2026-08-11T23:17:44-0400

guyute1500 said:
i recently got an old aquatop eco 28 and I have the same question as tirish. My questions edsbeaker is does it matter if tirish is running a skimmer or a fuge, and does that make a difference? Slower flow for the macro to work or whatever.

Typically the flow does not need to be more than 10x turnover through the sump due to filteration efficency but personal experience for my tank is im currently running at 20x turn over at the moment.
I dont think macro needs slower flow to become efficient as something like chaeto works better when tumbling. When im doing cleaning, i like the stuff im putting into suspension to get sucked into the filter floss rather quickly vs settling at the bottom.
My tank is very small and even with special grade sand and crushed coral if i run the mp10 too high, it either makes a vortex and gurgles or it blows the sand around.