How to Avoid Mistakes & Choose the Right Return Pump for Your Reef Tank: Top 20 Return Pump Mistakes

Have there been any studies on heat output of differing style return pumps? Watts vs Heat added?

Thanks for another great video! Question about dual return pumps - most tanks only have one return built in. How do you run two pumps into one return line? Is there some sort of manifold that you can build that can take two inputs and not fight against each other? I'm concerned that the two pumps would be fighting against each other if I try to merge them together.

I still keep my old AC return pump around for when my DC pump fails, been handy a couple of times. Love the silence of DC pumps.

I feel like #4, 5, 6 are all interconnected. "You need 10x flow" but the pump box isn't accurate... or more to the point the person is inaccurately applying the value to the pump, and head pressure all of that often brings down the flow of the pump into a range which is useful. So 10x the flow probably isn't a bad starting point by using that.

BTW, I absolutely adore you guys putting the extra effort in these videos to put the time divisions topics in the slider bar because I don't want to spend a half hour watching a video when I only want to get one thing, and I surely don't want to watch an hour and 30 minute video where I'm guessing where the "useful" information is. So props to whomever over there is doing this, and please keep it up.

So my son and I are listening to the return pumps video and my wife walks in. Of course her first comment - those are cool pictures on the wall - I wonder where they got them )

Hey guys! I'm a big fan of your content and I have a newbie question. In searching for an ideal first AIO tank I am wondering how much of a difference there would be between a rimless/lidless tank as opposed to something such as a biocube 32. I have my eyes on a 40g AIO rimless but inevitably the BioCube 32 comes into mind. I worry about excessive evaporation with a lidless tank. I know there are water top-off solutions and larger aquariums have more successful outsomes but (like most beginners in the marine hobby) budget budget budget. I've been successful with a 30g cichlid tank for several years and I want to venture out. Any help would be awesome.

Can an Apex Classic Gold do power monitoring? Or is that just for the newer Apex models?

Thank you guys for the great info! Would love to see BRS stock replacement parts for all the pumps they sell (especially impellers!). Would be great to buy equipment and replacement parts from the same place without having to go back and forth with OEM customer support.

lol I can't hear anything and the return pumps will only cost you 10k

Also all pumps are rated with fresh water. So you are pushing a fluid that weighs ~5% more. In static loads its a very small difference. Start adding head it it is very noticeable

Just ordered a Sicce 6.0 this morning. I've been running the Jebao 3000 and 4000 for a couple years, but I'm getting pretty pissed lately as it's been throwing error codes and stops working. Ugh... looking forward to the Sicce SDC.

BRS what is the plastic clip on your silicone tubing?

How often should you clean your return pump?

Need a quiet replacement pump for a biocube 32

Do I have to clean my pump? My lfs said I didn’t but the directions say to.

@Bulk Reef Supply

Y'all need to provide your customer service reps with this updated information, as what you're saying here and what they are ton of people on the phone, are two totally different things.

I bought a Sicce Syncra Pro (800GPH) to serve as return pump for my 120g peninsula tank, based on this video. I mentioned this to two different reps, (Matt and J.J.) and they told me it was way too small. And that I should get a pump that will do 10x return rate.

I told them I did a leak test on the aquarium with the pump using tap water. Both responded with telling me that I cannot return this pump for a larger one because it's been used. So, $120 wasted, if I go by their 10x rate suggestion

Could you please recommend a great dc pump for a 80 gallon shallow reef with 60 gallon sump?

I have a very very cheap DC pump and it’s still so quiete I can’t hear it

why do you guys always never do pumps for nano tanks?

Thanks guys. My aquarist is telling me to have 2 pumps; 1 for backup. Is that advisable?

Hey guys I know this is an old vid but I’m fairly new to the hobby only 4 months in but I’d like to share an experience I had when talking about flow rate. I do agree that 10x is a bit outrageous but my tank is a Red Sea Reefer XL 200 with a total system volume of 206L. My fish store guy gave me a 2500/LPH DC pump which is actually a bit more than 10x but right away the pump suffered with negative gravity. Even with the pump on full power I could hear the pump changing tone a sign of it struggling but the worst part of it was the water level in the overflow box kept fluctuating from almost empty to going down the emergency overflow pipe. I did some math and worked out that by the time the water reached the return nozzle of 1.4m, it had lost more than half the max head height of the pump therefore there was barely enough flow to even send water through the return nozzle. I have now upgraded to a Fluval Sea SP2 pump which is also an AC pump with a 3600/LPH rating and has sorted the issue without jetting the water out.

Very, very valuable information. Thank you!

More turn around, more concentrated waste water for skimmer, more efficient skimmer.
For fresh water technically you don't care, you only converts everything to nitrates.

So is 10x turnover rate for your return just an old school way of thinking? So 3-4x turnover rate is new school way of thinking?

Return pumps indeed add to the flow of your tank! Get yourself a Vectra and watch your corals go wild

So 6.9 gallons a minute pump to 110 gallon tank + 50 gallon refugium 1 pump with 12 foot of lift can't work 😢🎉😂 my ato was a freshwater drip value on village water no chlorine in tap

The only ac pumps that are quite are the Fluval return pumps

what about using the same plumbing to display tank to the intake of the return pump ?