180 Oceanic water flow

[crimsoncoral]

I just bought a 180 Gal (RR) Oceanic and am trying to design a good water flow. It looks like it has 2 1" holes for drainage to sump. In the past I have always had my drains larger than my returns. i.e. I had a 75 that had 1 - 1" overflow/drain and a 1 - 3/4" return. What I want to know is could I have 2 - 1" returns on the 180 and not cause a problem? I realize that the size of the return pump and how many gph it can pump will factor in as well. help?

[tendar]

The max flow the over flow will handle is 1600 gph so says oceanic.
I dont see any problem having 1" returns just have to hock them up to something. Most every thing is for returns are made 1/2" or 3/4".

[dsb1829]

I am using the same tank. The only difference is that mine is custom drilled with 1.5" overflows and 1" returns. You are limited by the holes in the bottom of the tank to .75" bulkheads, but there is nothing wrong with expanding to 1" from the bulkhead into the tank. In fact this is a great way to have good water turnover without all the turbulence caused by water exiting a smaller return at a faster rate.

The funny thing I found out was that as Tendar mentioned the overflows only handle 1600-1800gph. By that I mean the slots cut in the top for water. So I have durso pipes capable of handling 4000gph, but can't even push half that through the overflow slots. This could be remedied with a dremel tool and a jig, but who wants to take a dremel to a $2000 tank?

In answer to your question, yes you can use the same size return plumbing as your overflow. The only condition is that you aren't pumping more water through the returns than your overflows can handle.

[crimsoncoral]

well I can get around the 3/4" return by coming up the back of the tank with the plumbing and using 2 1" sea swirls (instead of 2 3/4" sea swirls) I'll have to worry about the power of my return pump.dsb1829 what do you use for return pump(s) from your sump to your tank?

[dsb1829]

I am currently using 2/3 of the flow from a Dolphin 3600. The other third of it goes to the skimmer. I found that pushing any more through the tank would work, but the water level would rise to the center brace. It was also very noisy running approximately 3000gph through those overflows, even though they were durso.