Advice on Reef Tank Flow and Return - Have I had it wrong all this time?

[Greg Depo]

Alright so I had a 115g custom acyclic tank built nearly two years ago and I asked the manufacturer to drill 3 1.25" drains so I could install a bean animal drain setup. Well he actually drilled 1" holes in the overflow box. At the time after some initial research I came to the conclusion it would be okay. I don't really remember the logic behind it but I'm thinking I may have drastically undersized the return drain.

This has become more apparent when I upgraded my return pumps. A few months ago I bought two new Vectra M2 returns for redundancy and got them installed. One thing i noticed immediately was that the M2 are drastically oversized for my drains. I opened the gate valve all the way and tuned it the best I could. I couldn't figure out just how much gph I was sending back to the tank so I installed two Neptune flow meters and from what I see the highest I can push is 380 gph before the sump can't keep up (the water level gets too low and the pumps suck air). I mean thats not even 4x turnover and I should be aiming for what 10x minimum?

My tank has been stable but I've never been able to get the nitrates under 30 and I've noticed slow coral grow to no growth with sps. Could this be causing the high nitrates and poor sps growth? If so what should I do? This is my display tank and not really sure how I'd even go about upgrading the drains? Do I have to upgrade all three or can I just upgrade the main drain pipe? Or could it be some sort of back pressure issue, I do have a small hole drilled into the top of the J pvc drain pipe but maybe that’s not large enough? Any help is greatly appreciated and I’m hoping I’m just overthinking this and it’s a simple fix but I figured I’d ask the experts

 

[Greg Depo]

Alright so I had a 115g custom acyclic tank built nearly two years ago and I asked the manufacturer to drill 3 1.25" drains so I could install a bean animal drain setup. Well he actually drilled 1" holes in the overflow box. At the time after some initial research I came to the conclusion it would be okay. I don't really remember the logic behind it but I'm thinking I may have drastically undersized the return drain.

This has become more apparent when I upgraded my return pumps. A few months ago I bought two new Vectra M2 returns for redundancy and got them installed. One thing i noticed immediately was that the M2 are drastically oversized for my drains. I opened the gate valve all the way and tuned it the best I could. I couldn't figure out just how much gph I was sending back to the tank so I installed two Neptune flow meters and from what I see the highest I can push is 380 gph before the sump can't keep up (the water level gets too low and the pumps suck air). I mean thats not even 4x turnover and I should be aiming for what 10x minimum?

My tank has been stable but I've never been able to get the nitrates under 30 and I've noticed slow coral grow to no growth with sps. Could this be causing the high nitrates and poor sps growth? If so what should I do? This is my display tank and not really sure how I'd even go about upgrading the drains? Do I have to upgrade all three or can I just upgrade the main drain pipe? Or could it be some sort of back pressure issue, I do have a small hole drilled into the top of the J pvc drain pipe but maybe that’s not large enough? Any help is greatly appreciated and I’m hoping I’m just overthinking this and it’s a simple fix but I figured I’d ask the experts

Bump… any ideas

 

[X-37B]

I run around 200gph through my sump in my 120 with one 1" drain
This works for me as their is more contact time for my oversized skimmer and my carx.
I have never been a fan of high throughput sumps.

My system is 95% sps and I do have 6 powerheads in the display running random flow at 100%.

Check my build for info.

 

[X-37B]

On nitrates I ran a Tunze 9410dc skimmer until nitrates crept up to 20. I upgraded to an oversize skimmer 9430dc and now nitates are <5.

 

[Greg Depo]

I run around 200gph through my sump in my 120 with one 1" drain
This works for me as their is more contact time for my oversized skimmer and my carx.
I have never been a fan of high throughput sumps.

My system is 95% sps and I do have 6 powerheads in the display running random flow at 100%.

Check my build for info.

Interesting… I’m actually in the middle of adding the hydros wave engine with two more power heads since currently I have two gyres at the top and that all. I just wanted to make sure it’s not a flow issue!

 

[Greg Depo]

On nitrates I ran a Tunze 9410dc skimmer until nitrates crept up to 20. I upgraded to an oversize skimmer 9430dc and now nitates are <5.

I feel like I have an oversized one now lol I also have a bio *edit* pellet reactor and gfo/carbon and it’s still high!

 

[X-37B]

I feel like I have an oversized one now lol I also have a bio bead reactor and gfo/carbon and it’s still high!

Whats your po4?
Whats a bio bead reactor?

 

[Greg Depo]

Whats your po4?
Whats a bio bead reactor?

po4 fluctuates around 20-80ppb
Sorry bio pellet lol

 

[X-37B]

.06 to .25 is quite a swing.
I would focus on getting po4 stable at <.1
No3 at <5.

Many things go into this.
Lights
Fish load
Feeding- import
Export system

What is the purpose of your bio pellet reactor and is it working?

 

[Greg Depo]

.06 to .25 is quite a swing.
I would focus on getting po4 stable at <.1
No3 at <5.

Many things go into this.
Lights
Fish load
Feeding- import
Export system

What is the purpose of your bio pellet reactor and is it working?

Bio pellet from what I understand is a replacement for growing macro algae. It removes nitrates. And I agree that is a large swing but I’m only testing once every week or so. Usually if it is ticking up I need to replace the gfo media.

Still trying to figure out why I can’t turn up my M1 pumps past 400 gph? Shouldn’t a 1” full Siphon drain be able to do a lot more than that?!?

 

[Cory]

Alright so I had a 115g custom acyclic tank built nearly two years ago and I asked the manufacturer to drill 3 1.25" drains so I could install a bean animal drain setup. Well he actually drilled 1" holes in the overflow box. At the time after some initial research I came to the conclusion it would be okay. I don't really remember the logic behind it but I'm thinking I may have drastically undersized the return drain.

This has become more apparent when I upgraded my return pumps. A few months ago I bought two new Vectra M2 returns for redundancy and got them installed. One thing i noticed immediately was that the M2 are drastically oversized for my drains. I opened the gate valve all the way and tuned it the best I could. I couldn't figure out just how much gph I was sending back to the tank so I installed two Neptune flow meters and from what I see the highest I can push is 380 gph before the sump can't keep up (the water level gets too low and the pumps suck air). I mean thats not even 4x turnover and I should be aiming for what 10x minimum?

My tank has been stable but I've never been able to get the nitrates under 30 and I've noticed slow coral grow to no growth with sps. Could this be causing the high nitrates and poor sps growth? If so what should I do? This is my display tank and not really sure how I'd even go about upgrading the drains? Do I have to upgrade all three or can I just upgrade the main drain pipe? Or could it be some sort of back pressure issue, I do have a small hole drilled into the top of the J pvc drain pipe but maybe that’s not large enough? Any help is greatly appreciated and I’m hoping I’m just overthinking this and it’s a simple fix but I figured I’d ask the experts

Most common growth slowers are always having zeros for no3 and po4 and low ph.

 

[Jubei2006]

Alright so I had a 115g custom acyclic tank built nearly two years ago and I asked the manufacturer to drill 3 1.25" drains so I could install a bean animal drain setup. Well he actually drilled 1" holes in the overflow box. At the time after some initial research I came to the conclusion it would be okay. I don't really remember the logic behind it but I'm thinking I may have drastically undersized the return drain.

This has become more apparent when I upgraded my return pumps. A few months ago I bought two new Vectra M2 returns for redundancy and got them installed. One thing i noticed immediately was that the M2 are drastically oversized for my drains. I opened the gate valve all the way and tuned it the best I could. I couldn't figure out just how much gph I was sending back to the tank so I installed two Neptune flow meters and from what I see the highest I can push is 380 gph before the sump can't keep up (the water level gets too low and the pumps suck air). I mean thats not even 4x turnover and I should be aiming for what 10x minimum?

My tank has been stable but I've never been able to get the nitrates under 30 and I've noticed slow coral grow to no growth with sps. Could this be causing the high nitrates and poor sps growth? If so what should I do? This is my display tank and not really sure how I'd even go about upgrading the drains? Do I have to upgrade all three or can I just upgrade the main drain pipe? Or could it be some sort of back pressure issue, I do have a small hole drilled into the top of the J pvc drain pipe but maybe that’s not large enough? Any help is greatly appreciated and I’m hoping I’m just overthinking this and it’s a simple fix but I figured I’d ask the experts

You only want 3 to 4x turn over from the sump. Tank turn over can be anywhere from 10 to sky's the limit.