Will this pump be enough?

[Glass Onion]

Hello Everyone,
I bought a used W/D filter with a pump yesterday. It seems to be about a 50 gallon unit and came with a BlueLine 40X filter. With 0 head, it's rated 1270 gph. I originally was going to put it on my 135, but the stand is too low to accomodate it. So I will be putting it on my moop tank which is a 125 which has about a 30" high stand.

Whoever owned it before me must've been slightly, er....slow. Because when I took it to my LFS for them to tell me what I needed, the owner shook his head a bunch of times as he looked over how it was plumbed. He was nice enough to re-plumb it for me (after I took his shopping list to Lowe's).

It seems to be a monster unit, but I'm concerned that the rate isn't enough for the magical 4X filtration we like to have on our tanks. Aqua Clear 110 pump 500gph and are rated for up to 110 gallon, so this pump would be good for a 220 @ 0 head, right?

Will the size of the actual W/D and the large amount of media (about 12 gallons of bio balls, sponges and such) offset the flow rate? It will have two return nozzles (bendy ones) on either side of the tank: one pointed at the surface and one pointed toward the substrate.

I haven't run one of these in over 15 years, so I have forgotten just about everything.

Here's a picture of it. I hope you can make it out, the lighting was a little high when I took the pic.



It still needs to be cleaned.

Thanks,
Jenney.

[bethesdaboy]

you can never have too large of a wet/dry.
I will take a picture of some of mine one day.

[cichlid1409]

magical 4x?? try 10-15x...but i think it should do fine for your 135g, more GPH would be ideal though. I never pay any attention to the factory recommended tank size. only the GPH. I recently upgraded my 125g, which had a 1000 gph @ 0' head with a wet-dry with close to 10g of bio-balls and about 40 fish ran it like this for over a year no problems. now it has a 2500gph @ 0' head and is rockin and rollin! bio-balls shouldn't affect your flow rate either.

[Glass Onion]

By 4X, I mean four times the recommended filtration for regular fish. Not four times the turn over. Sorry... So, a normal 125 would be ok with a Rena XP3, but a Troph tank would need more filters on it. Like my moop tank, 125 gallon, has 2 XP3's and one AC100.

[cichlid1409]

hmmmmn. never heard that before. sounds like a good analogy though.

[geoff_tropheus]

A wet dry only needs 4-5X turnover to function.

Tropheus on the other hand need 10+X turnover in their aquarium to thrive. As long as your wetdry has 4-5X turnover, and then you had a power head or another filter that will put you in the 10+ range you will be ok.

The amount of bio-balls is all related to amount of surfacce area for bacteria to colonize. 1 Liter of Eheim regualr Substrat is rated for 70 gallons of aquarium water. This is how I generally judge the amount of bio-media surface area and then double that to be safe.

The blueline 40X pump is rated for 1270gph at 0 and is capable up to 13ft of head. So this pump at about 5ft of head will most likely flow 900 gph. I am guessing based upon similiar Iwaki models at the same size and watts.
This will give you about 6.5 in turnover. You'll be fine for the wetdry. For Tropheus, I would add about another 500-800 in water circulation for the tank.

http://www.aquacave.com/blueline-40-hd-x-externalbr-aquarium-water-pump-brby-pan-world-534.html

[geoff_tropheus]

I would get a Maxjet 1200 and use the algae free modification which produces 2100gph.

The thing with wetdry's is no matter how much flow you can give it with a pump, you got to match it with the overflow capability, or you'll be having to bypass alot of flow back into the sump.

What is the size of your over flow box or built in tubes?

[myjohnson]

Pump should be fine Jen.

I have a mag 12 on my 125g.

[ssrprelude]

Pump should be fine Jen.

I have a mag 12 on my 125g.

Same here, mag 12.

[Zulaab]

I run a MAG 18 on my 180. I have the same 12G of bioballs... and my Chilambo LOVES it....

[Glass Onion]

The overflow box is the double wide, with the dual drains. I think the flexible tubing is an inch or bigger that goes to the filter. My guy plumbed everything with an inch or larger, excepting the return jets, of which there are two.

I can take a close up at various angles of the pump. I am cleaning the filter tomorrow and setting it up. I have to move the Rena's to the 135 in readiness for the 26 Lupota, but I won't be getting them for a couple of weeks and am paranoid (rightfully so) that the nice huge bio load will dissipate because I only have 14 Musanga in the 135.

I have an idea. Tho, I may just leave them hooked up on either side of the WD until I need them.

Thanks guys!!!!!
Jenney.

[myjohnson]

26 Lupota

[Glass Onion]

Thanks Thai. I've been waiting for these guys to hit US dirt since you guys helped me decide between them and moliro. They were supposed to get here last Friday, but that pesky volcano jacked my plans.
I am also gettting 18 WC Namansi. I couldn't help myself. I am sick...and helpless...and....in the wrong part of the country to have such an addiction.
Most of the fish other than Trophs listed in my signature will be gone daddy gone in order to fuel the affliciton. haha.
Won't be getting anything new until October or so when I move into some bigger digs.
Jenney.

[ssrprelude]

Wow you're going to have a very nice collection of tropheus. Congrats.

[geoff_tropheus]

Tropheus are the most awesome fishes out there!!!

Glad to hear your fishes are coming back