My First Question

Ok here I go my first question on my way to joining this great hobby.
I currently have mt 90g tank set up inside my wall in the basement and just got my first piece of equipment (rodi). Looking to set up my sump next (30g)and thinking of going with a Octopus Extreme 200 protein skimmer my question would be what size and brand of return pump would be best for this set up? I think that I would prefer a internal return pump. My tank is a marineland 90g with a corner overflow both holes are drilled for 1" even though the pvc that came with the tank was 1 1/4" for the drain with a reducer to 1" and 1" for the return so I was thinking that I would just run both lines to the sump as 1" as far as the return goes i think i will be able to get by with just 2 45's back to the tank with about 6' of head pressure. I plan on putting 1 or maybe 2 powerheads in the tank for water movement as well. One other question i have is would it be better if my ro/di was hooked up before my water goes to my watersoftner or after the water goes through the softner? Any help and comments would be appreciated.

 

You should get a return pump that operates at 5 to 10 times your sumps volume at head. So you want one that runs 150 to 300 gph at head.

 

so something like a mag 7 then? Any suggestions as in brand? something fairly quiet and not too bad on the hydro? The other question was about the ro/di better hooked into the water supply before or after the watersoftner or does it even matter?

 

Definitely hook up the RODI after the water softener. The more pre-filtering into a RODI unit, the better, IMO.

 

Look into Rio HF pumps for your return. They are very reliable, efficient and not hard on the wallet.

 

After; RO membranes love softened water, it does much of the work for them!

For a return pump look at the Ocean Runner 3500, Octopus has a clone of this pump too the OTP 3000, or the Eheim 1262. I have 4 of the OR pumps in my systems and love them, they are energy efficient, generate little heat, quiet and bullletproof. The Eheim is similar in all respects but I found when testing with a Kill A Watt meter they derw slightly more power to produce the same GPH, not much but enough I felt running it 24/7/365 it would add up.