Return pump recommendations?

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Nepherael

Nepherael

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Also posted on MFK.

Anyone recommend a good return pump for a DIY wet/dry that can handle up to 75g tank? Maybe around 500gph but preferably with an adjustable flow. Anyone know a good place to shop with good prices or, better yet, have one laying around they want to get rid of
 
Nepherael

Nepherael

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If anyone reads this and has experience with DIY wet/dry setups I would love to hear from you. I'm having a hard time getting answers over on MFK (I just joined there a couple days ago and found this forum this morning).

I need help with PVC sizes mostly and then part recommendations so I don't get crappy stuff or overlook something
 
SubRosa

SubRosa

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Are you looking for an external or a submersible pump?
 
Nepherael

Nepherael

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Either/or is fine. I had been thinking submersible but that is only because I haven't had much help and have just been checking out DIY videos. It could be in-line though. That shouldn't require much more effort on my part with research.

Just whatever out of the two stands as fairly cheap and reliable
 
SubRosa

SubRosa

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For an external, I prefer BlueLine pumps as the best value for the money. Assuming a standard height stand you'll have a head pressure of about 5', so to get about 500 gph at that height you're looking at a Blueline HD 30. Actually it will give you about 480gph at that height, unless your return plumbing is overly convoluted. For a submersible I really Like the QuietOne series from Rainbow/Lifeguard. A QuietOne 3000 will give you the flow you need.
 
Nepherael

Nepherael

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Thank you for being so helpful in both threads I've made. I'm going to do a DIY wet/dry and just hook it up with my other filter to let it seed and establish for about a month because I'd like to phase out my canister for use elsewhere or to put it away.

My goal is to have one made from another tank (a tank will fit easier under my stand and the tub route would look like crap and have to sit next to the tank) but I have to figure out size of the reservoir for up to a 75g and the way to make the compartments correctly (the drawings and pictures I see are a little rough and look more like a sump with submerged media) but if I can't do any of that I'm going with the cheap easy way and getting a big tub with two buckets and making it from that.

Now if I could buy an fx5 I'd probably be happy XD
 
Nepherael

Nepherael

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Oh wow, I just looked up the quiet one 3000 and it's only $65 on amazon. You're a life saver. That is way cheaper than other stuff I was looking at and that other stuff was a third the flow.

So now just to find someone who can help me out with PVC diameter and other small questions and I'm good to go
 
SubRosa

SubRosa

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General rule of thumb is that a sump should have 25% to 33% of the tank volume. Fyi a standard 5 gal bucket fits very nicely in a standard 12" wide tank. A single 5 gal bucket full of bioballs will handle any bioload you could reasonably imagine in a 75 gal tank, providing that the bulk of the media is held above the water level in the sump. The chemical reactions involved are all oxidation, and the more oxygen present the more efficient the process. All you need to do is rig up a drip tray on top of the bioballs to handle mechanical filtration. The chambers in a normal sump are for bubble control. The splashing of water trickling through the media generates lots of bubbles, which can be sucked into the return pump. This will give the tank a cloudy appearance from all of the microbubbles. A series of 3 baffles, where the water flows over the first, under the second and over the third before entering the pump section is normally sufficient for this.
 
SubRosa

SubRosa

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PVC diameter of the return plumbing will naturally be dictated by the size of the fitting on the pump. The QuietOne 3000 is 1" NPT. The pump does include a fitting which will allow you to use flexible tubing, 3/4" I believe. Even if you decide to go with PVC, a small section of flexible tubing on either side of the pump can help reduce vibrational noise. For drain side plumbing, larger is always better. By the book, if you're flowing 500 gph then 1" PVC can handle the flow with a bit of capacity to spare, but if you're going 100% DIY then use 1.25" or 1.5", since crud will build up over time that can decrease flow capacity.
 
Nepherael

Nepherael

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Rock on. Thank you again. Yeah I've seen how to make the drip tray in the 5g bucket and I'm glad to know that it can fit like that. The percentage of extra water sounds good also. This is starting to look real doable from a monetary standpoint.

Now I understand the micro bubble thing. Quick setup question. What I didn't quite get was how the water dripped onto the biomedia in some of the multi compartment setups I saw. First compartment fills to top to go over the first baffle but that would just go over the edge, if the biomedia is in that second compartment how does it get dripped on if the water is just coming over the edge and then going under the second baffle? I might not be making that sound clear.

Now that is opposed to the basic tub setup I saw where the wet/dry intake had the mech filtration in the drip tray which then dripped onto biomedia and out the bottom of the bucket into the tub where it was returned to the tank. I understand that clearly because it isn't a series of compartments
 
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