10 ft of head

[suthrnmn]

Im finishing my closed loop on a 84x24x30. It will have 2 seperate pumps running seperate lines. There will be 4 ports on each line. So the question is how big a pump would you put on each line. This is gonna be a bare bottom or a shallow sand bed system, probably bare bottom. Thanks for your input.

 

[reef_only]

I think it depends on a few factors:
1. How much your overflow can handle.
2. How many watts you want to burn, as someone has their return as water circulation also but this will burn quite more wattage for the same performace as powerheads so it's not good idea of doing this.
3. IMO, 4-5X return is very good, the rest of water flow should be from circulation from powerhead.
4. Your setup, like skimmer how much they can handle, example if skimmer can only handle 1000Gph you don't want to put 3000Gph through.... or someone has fuge/sump combo and wants a right amount of flow for the fuge.
I'm sure people here will have better advices for you.

 

[suthrnmn]

reef....thanks...but this is a closed loop system. There is no involvement with the overflow or sump. Just 2 pumps pushing water about 10' thru 1 1/2" pipe to 1" outlets in the bottom of the tank. There are 4 outlets on each side of the bottom of the tank. The thought is for one bank to push the water clock wise then shut off and the other bank push the water counter clock wise. Im just not sure if I need a "dart" size pump or a "barracuda" size pump...or perhaps even bigger. Trying to get some input here but as you can see it is kinda slim.

 

[bmrescort]

I can tell you this much I have a barracuda pump in my basement and it is about 10 feet below my tank sending the water back up to the returns in the tank. I actually have it restricted a bit to get the flow right. I could only imagine how much flow there would be inside the tank if you used it for a closed loop system. I don't know and someone please correct me if I am wrong but that seems like a lot of pump for a loop.

 

[bmrescort]

I just re-read your post and I think that you have a bit of terminology misunderstood. Head pressure refers to the vertical climb of water and has nothing to do with water moving sideways in a hose. For that matter a maxi-jet 1200 would push water 10" sideways but could not push it more than about 2 or 3 foot upwards. Hope that helps and remember Head pressure is an upwards measurement of pressure.

 

[suthrnmn]

for ease of discussion...10ft of head = actual head + frictional pressure + frictional resistance caused by 90 degree turns etc, in my case 10' is a nice round number. thanks

 

[Theron]

I am not sure what the right answer is for you, but here is what I am planning for my system.

I setting up a tank little bigger than yours, about 330 gallons. The tank is plumbed for two closed loops. Each closed loop will be powered by a Sequence Barracuda. I don't think there should be much head pressure on my closed loop since it does not have to push against gravity, just friction in the pipes.

For my system I am guessing about 4000 gph each pump after head pressure. I am looking to get about 800 gph per return, so I am planning on 5 returns per loop.

Theron