Thinking of down sizing my pump - suggestions wanted

[Jamie]

I currently have a Custom Sealife Velocity T4 as my return pump for the 30 gal wet/dry sump for my 150 gal tank. It is rated at 1200 gph with a 3ft head. With a couple of 90's and the length of my plumbing I'd say I'm getting somewhere around 1000 gph. I have dual overflow boxes, hence two supply lines coming into the tank...they just "seem" too strong. I don't know if the fish like the force from them or not. My cardinals (24 of them) found a nice less forceful area of the tank and school nicely. My hatchets (16) and rasboras (22) on the other hand , mixed together, split up, and are always swimming into the current or almost purposfully getting blown around by it. The plants aren/t getting uprooted or anything drastic like that....it just takes away from the nice look of my little schooling buddies. Over the past few days they just split up into to two groups in each front, top corner, swimming/getting blown around, over and over again. I expected the rasboras to swim more in the center of my tank. I was thinking of tuning down to around 600 gph. This would still give me a turn over of 4X. I am also adding a power reactor with a rio 200 which would add to the circulation. Any comments?

[a_free_bird73]

I don't think you need to down size specially if it is going to cost you more money. It is always more handy to have a powerful pump and control the flow than try to upgrade. You never know when you might be tempted to change to saltwater when you will need the power of this pump.

you can use flow restrictors, you can divert the flow direction in the tank or you can add an additional outlet in the sump with a tap which allows you to control how much gets back into the aquarium vs how much just recirculates in the sump .

When I set up my 150G, I used food dye to work out the flow directions and speed in my tank as I have 2 power heads and 2 undergravel flow tubes powered by a dedicated large capacity air pump. with correct direction, I get fast flow in the middle 1/3 while getting much slower flow in the other 2/3 which suits Discus while catering for fish that likes fast water...

[a_free_bird73]

By the way, keep in mind that as the system matures the flow will slow down a bit because of all the debri on the way

[Jamie]

Thanks for the input. I just spoke with a guy from a not so LFS and he gave me the same idea of putting in a tap to the sump to regulate the flow. I think its a pretty great idea - and a money saver like you said. I bought another bulkhead and will be plumbing it into the top of my sump tonight or tomorrow. At the same time I will be fixing my CO2 reactor and putting up guards around my two overflow boxes since the fish like to jump into them and hang out...talk about a pain in the butt to try and fish them out. So far about 8 have gone through and I have only gotten two out. With the return and supply lines in the way, there's not much room for manuevering to catch the little buggers. The other fish still inside the weirs will just have to stay incarcerated untill tomorrow. Thanks again

- Jamie