Redundancy

[Impetus]

Hello,

I’m new to this world and plan to build a 180x90x70 cm aquarium with a closed loop circulation. In the closed loop there will be two pumps running each a half of the closed loop.

In order to get redundancy on the pumps I then need 2 return pumps, 2 closed loop circulation pumps and 2 pumps for the protein skimmer.

Isn’t there a way to only have two powerful pumps that run everything?
I know protein skimmers come with their own pump but isn’t there a workaround for that also?

 

[blaxsun]

You may be over-thinking this. Skimmers aren't mission critical, so a single skimmer/pump is fine. Instead of building a closed loop you could just run a single return pump with dual returns and some wavemakers in the tank (which would replicate that).

 

[Impetus]

I have decided on a closed loop for several reasons (better TCO, easier maintainance, better options for hiding it).
I agree with overthinking the redundancy for the skimmer. But running 5 pumps is still 3 too many.

Is it possible to divert the power from the pumps and split the power with most power to the closed loop?