Closed/Open Loop System

A

antdog

Membership Expired
I'm thinking about going with a closed loop system for flow in the 75 gal I'm setting up. But I have a few questions.

It seems that most of the closed loop systems I've seen are just that, closed loop with the pump simply pulling water from the overflow and pumping it back into the tank for flow. But my question is, can I used the pump in my sump for this? I believe I saw one of Melev's (Marc) earlier tanks with a set up like this. Would it be feasible for me to do this for my 75 gal or would there a be a potnential for problems that I'm not seeing?

Or maybe I shouldn't even go with a closed loop system and put a couple pumps for flow?? Thoughts?

Thanks,
Anthony
 
If you did it with your sump, you would be running large amounts of water through your sump. which could affect skimming and could produce lots of micro bubbles.
 
Ahhh ok, that makes sense. I figured it was a speed of water through the sump related issue.
 
Open loop systems are like your sump. They are open to everything
Closed loops are closed. You can't pull from the overflow, because it would back siphon and overflow the sump. You would have to pull from the tank and return to the tank. In this case, you turn off the pump and nothing happens. Its closed. Closed loops are nice because you can have device attached to add randomness and still only use 1 pump. It can be switched on and off for feeding and more randomness. Also, your pump wont be fighting head pressure so your getting Max flow out of your pump.
Down side, is new pumps now offer lots of flow at lower wattage.
 
@dahenley wrote:
Open loop systems are like your sump. They are open to everything Closed loops are closed. You can't pull from the overflow said:
Thanks Dahenley.

Yeah, I plan to add a SCWD to my closed loop to create that "randomness" you mentioned. Now when you say my pump won't be fighting "head pressure" what do you mean? Also, why would it be a bad thing (downside) if I had a pump with higher flow and lower wattage?? That sounds like a good tihng?
Click to expand...
 
Hes saying you get better performance with a tunze or a vortech than you do with a closed loop. Also, with the new powerheads, closed loops are a thing of the past. Closed loops unnecessarily heat up your water (from the punp), use more electricity than the vortechs/tunzes, result in more potential plumbing issues (power heads have no plumbing!), the list of reasons to not do closed loop go on and on and on. Especially on a 75 gallon and how small it is. Rift to Reef has a closed loop on their 700+ gallon tank, but I can see why they went that route for aesthetics - didnt want to have power heads on the part of the glass that customers would be walking by.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top