Overflows and Returns

I will be installing a sump under my 30 gallon, the sump will actually be the same size, a 30 gallon maybe 20 long. I just want to know the best overflows and return pumps. If someone could explain it to me, how the gph works with overflow and return pump.
Thanks in advance.

 

mag drives are a good brand. Just gotta know how much flow you want at the head level and then go from there! Remember, you gotta calculate another foot for 90 degree elbows and what not!

 

ok overflow boxes are essentially siphons that drain into your tank. So the water the return pump pushes into your tank is siphoned to a drain that leads to your sump. A couple of the drawbacks to this are losing siphon. Some people hotly contest that you will NEVER lose siphon but I've found that to be untrue lol. Micro bubbles, snail and other causes may mess with the siphon causing the occasional flood. If you go this route I would look into shut offs for the return pump (low water is sump) and flooding from siphon loss (high water in DT) or plan well.
In my 55 the water in my sump ran lo because I am lazy and dont own a ATO. My pump never cooked or anything, but that shut off would have made me feel better. Conversely my DT never flooded due to lost siphon because my water level in the sump would run low before flooding the DT.
Don't let this scare you, many many hardcore reefers run overflow boxes safely and successful but they require diligence in your maintenance. I did a ton of research for mine and found a commercial system that worked well for me, but I've seen alot of DIY systems and what-not that work great for others.

 

Thanks for all the information. I am going to measure the distance I want to move the water up from. Then I will throw out that number to see what you say. What is the "general" rule for a pump and overflow GPH? Like which one needs more GPH. Sorry if this a dumb question, I really no nothing about it.
Again Thanks for the help.

 

Always want your overflow to be higher than your return!

 

Ha I guess that makes sense.

 

Do you know what kind of overflow you want? I have a bean-animal style system and absolutely love it. The full siphon is self priming and always reengages on mine and is super quiet. As far as general rule with pump and overflow gph, you want an overflow that can handle more gph than your return pump can push up, or at least that's how mine is.

 

I love the bean-animal style, but I don't wanna do glass drillin. Thanks. Would you run a 300 gph or 1000 gph? Do you want the most circulation or less?

 

I said this on other thread recently.

The return gph rate should be determined by the actual water volume in the sump not the display. Lets say you have 20G for the sump. You'd have 70~80% of volume water in there, so 16 gallons of water times 6~10 in general is suggested return pump rate, so for this example is 96~160 gph with the headloss. I know its crazy low, but it is suggested.

I have a 20 long sump for my 90, with the Rio 10HF as a return pump, and this is more gph than suggested.

Trust me, its not hard to drill, you should look into glass-holes at least (I have the BeanAnimal on my 90). It would make your reef life a lot easier.

 

Did you somehow configure a beananimal with a glass-holes overflow?