Sump advice needed

You can silicon a peice of glass in to serperate your skimmer section from your refugium.  You will need your overflow to drain into your skimmer section in order for the water height in that section to remain constant.  It will always be the height of the peice of glass you put in.  
As far as purchasing a decent return pump,  I don't think there is a store in CR that sells anything but Penguin and Rio stuff which is not really what you want for your reef.

 

I would look into aquacave.com for a pump, because they are located so close to us they have very fast shipping. It is usually next day. I would think a mag9 or mag12 would do it depending on how much head you have. Will the sump be directly below the tank our in the basement?? If its going in the basement you will need a pressure rated pump.

 

Instead of using a mag 9.5 I'd use a OR3500. I switched out a mag 12 for one and it was a lot quieter, less heat into the water, and it uses less electricity. Either that or shell out the money for a eheim 1262. Premiumaquatics usually has pretty fast shipping as well.

 

just wondering what the problem is with rio, i am using nothing but and never had a problem is some type of wrong medal in them?

 

Rio pumps have a reputation for running hot, leaching electricity, and having high failure rates.  If you are using them without any of these symptoms, then I guess you got some of their better pumps.

 

Posted By jvonthun on 02/28/2008 9:35 AM

Rio pumps have a reputation for running hot, leaching electricity, and having high failure rates.  If you are using them without any of these symptoms, then I guess you got some of their better pumps.
I am not trying to hijack a thead, but i did not know this about Rio pumps. 
Could you guys tell me what the best submersible pumps are.  I have a undersand flow system that is currently running off of 3 Rio pumps in my tank.  I also have a submersible that I am using in my sump for a return.
That explains why I have LCD lighting and have no need for a heater.

 

I only have one regular pump in my system, and that is my return pump.  It's a Mag 9.  I don't really have experience with any other pumps, but ocean runner and quiet one seem to have decent reputations.  For smaller pumps you can't beat Maxi-Jets.

 

Posted By fnvarner on 02/28/2008 8:57 AM
just wondering what the problem is with rio, i am using nothing but and never had a problem is some type of wrong medal in them? I think Rio's just had a bad year a few years back and people have a stigma against them now.  I've had 3 running for the last year now with no troubles.  Seio power heads were reguarded as good quality before the new wider flow powerheads came out and seios are from the same manufacturer.

 

Call Bill in manchester, he said he had a bunch of used stuff right now, I don't know if he will have a pump or not but a while back he made my brother a great deal on a Iwaki pump.

As far as the sump goes, are you going to have some sort of top off system? If not and you leave a small chamber that all the evaporation water comes out of, you may have to add water very often. Not sure how to explain that more clear, hope it makes sence.