overflow

im still new to saltwater im making and installing 20 gal sump for my 30 gal bowfront does the overflow and return pump have to match?
and what would the best choice for a pump and overflow be.

 

I just tried to get my overflow and return pump to be as close as possible and then plumbed them both to ball valves so you can control the waterflow. Its worked good for me but i too am pretty new to this hobby so im sure there are better ways to do this.

 

try to run as big of a pump as you can and as bailey123 said use ball valves to regulate flow the more water flow the better and a over sized skimmer won't hurt use bigger pipes to plumb everything together so if you want to run a bigger pump you can if you haven't learned this already if you don't do it right the first time it will cost you double what type of hardware are you using and is a pre fab overflow or are you making it

 

I use "gravity" for my inlet on my sump and then have a 170gph pump returning water to my display. The gravity setup works perfectly for my setup because water does not flow unless the sump is pushing water in.

the ball-valve is a good setup too. I'm aware that some people go with the same setup and just use the valve to adjust the water-flow.

GL