Hi Haig,

What you need to concern yourself with is the size of the
drain in your overflow box. At best, a 1" drain tends to
barely handle 600gph. If you have an overflow with two 1"
drains, you have a little better protection against a flood,
even if one tube is clogged by a meandering snail.

Your return pump should be rated for the vertical height,
even though admittedly you have a longer horizontal distance
to travel. I have a feeling a Mag 7 would be under
powered, but at the same time, you only have 48g tank to
care for. At 5x the volume, you'll only need 250gph going
through the sump. So a Mag 7 would work well, as long as
you use 1" plumbing from the pump to the tank.

If you did use the SCWD, I'd suggest a Mag 9.5, because the
device will take away 20% of the flow. Another thing you
have to deal with is that you'd need to use 1.5" plumbing
with a Mag 9.5, and the SCWD has 3/4" fittings. Kind of a
hassle. I think you should just run one line up to the
tank, split it into a Tee or that return manifold you are
considering.

You don't need a wet/dry system to care for those kinds of
fish. Get enough LR in the system (48 to 75lbs) and you'll
be set. Running a canister filter to polish the water
during water changes or while blowing of the LR can help,
but you'll need to take it offline and clean it out within
48 hours to get the accumulated detritus out of the water
before it can break down into nitrates.

Marc


BigHaig wrote:

what are you keeping in your tank right now? this is very important as to
how you want your sump to compliment your tank.


I have 7 small fish and about 3 easy keep corals. As I said I may want to
add a few more fish, and a few more easy to keep corals (mushrooms etc).


the over flow rated for 600gph is tricky because you want to run a
1000gph+ pump...even given adjustment for head pressure, unless you are
going straight up from a basement, because you may have excess return
from your pump...which may overwhelm your overflow and cause some sort
of flood...something I have experienced in one way or another over the
many years of keeping wet critters. I would also ditch the sponge
located within the overflow box...if it starts to clog and flow
decreases but your return flow remains the same...guess what? time to
get the wet/dry vac out and start suckin' up water from your
mini-flood.


Should I get the Mag Drive Pump 700 (rated @ 450GPH at 4 feet)? Or the next
step up 800gph at 4 feet? The sump will be on the floor on the left side of
the tank (about 8 feet left), so it is more of a horizontal run, rather than
a vertical run) see www.bighaig.com/sump.gif.


scwd...not a big fan of them. they are great for their price and
function but your return water needs to be debris free....sometimes
hard in an aquarium...otherwise a pebble may get caught in the gears
and jam the whole thing up. plus, as far as I know...the biggest size
is a 3/4" and I need at least a 1" to 1 1/2"


I will not get a SCWD. Do you recommend I not use a wavemaker at all? or
do you recommend one?

Please take a look at the design I plan to use www.bighaig.com/sump.gif

Thanks again for your help!



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