Do you think this will work?

[PatrickJ]

I dont know if this setup will or will not work. A friend of mine is designing this setup to work with two pumps.

this is the steps: (red means unprocessed water, blue means processed.)

1.water drains into the sump on the right.
2. the water in the sump on the right is pumped with hammerhead into a sump upstairs.
3. the sump upstairs (top view) filters it with skimmers, refugiums, ect.
4. some of the water is brought to the chiller (eco cooler)
5. the water from the refugium and eco cooler join at a T.
6. the water is returned sump on the left.
7. the water is pumped by barracuda pump.
8. the pumped water is pushed through the oceans motions 4way
9. the cycle begins again.

!!concerns.
1.micro bubbles from the decent of water from the upstairs.
2. dualing pumps?



Any input would be awesome.

 

[PatrickJ]

oh and the diagram is not scaled and the length of pipes do not mean anything, just how they are configured is what matters.

 

[silverwolf72]

The way you have it is not going to work. 2750 going into the tank and 3375 going out. You would be better dedicating one of the pumps as a pure close loop and having only one sump at the bottom

 

[PatrickJ]

thank you for your input. trying to get this figured out now before it becomes a mess.

 

[PatrickJ]

anyone else

 

[PatrickJ]

bump

 

[reefD]

yeah i would use one pump FOR SURE . close loop it.......also why so many sumps/fuges! why not one larger tank/sump divided into more sections to include fuge, skimmer,etc? everything in your diagragh can be done with one sump sectioned of propperly.

 

[PatrickJ]

well as of right now that is the current setup, but the current setup is not good enough for the designer of the proposed sketch. So he wants to do this setup. So currently under the tank there is a center brace that will now allow a new sump. So he is opting to do this two sump design. He also plans to do a bridge between the sumps with two 2 inch pipes, so that way if one over flows, it will flow to the next sump.

 

[PatrickJ]

bump

 

[just dave]

I would treat the sump upstairs like tank on a multi-tank system.
Add another sump under the tank and tie them together with pipe large enough that will handle more flow 'n you anticipate it will see. The distance from the drains to the return pump along with any baffles should ensure no air bubbles being returned to the tank. Chose a pump large enough so that when it is split between the main tank and the filter upstairs that it can deliver the requirements you desire. Split the feed upstairs to the chiller and have it returned to the filter upstairs. You can feed and accessories upstairs by making the appropriate splits with the filters feed and/ or the output from the chiller. The sumps under the tank will have to be large enough to handle the back siphon from the main aquarium and the filter above and you need to make sure the feeds to the aquarium and the filter are such that they will not back siphon too much in a shut down. Special attention will need to be placed on this with regards to the filter upstairs especially if running a lot of different items split off the filters feed.

If it where me I'd prefer that the feed lines went to the highest point before they branched off to their respective destinations as this makes it easier to balance but if you don't want all the plumbing involved you would feed the main tank with the lavender leg and do away with the red leg.

 

[PatrickJ]

excellent drawing. You might have solved a very big and expensive problem, that ive been ponding my head over for the couple of days. well really i wasn't really worrying about it, because regardless of what input i think i have when designing this system, its always taken a back seat.

and by the way...who dat?

 

[just dave]

You could also plumb it like this with two smaller pumps.

The orange handled black valves and the yellow leg is optional. They would allow the main tank a feed source should its pump fail or is taken off line for service.

You might have solved a very big and expensive problem

I'll generate a bill in MS Paint and send it to you.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Two pumps will not work as seen in your original diagram.

Why not just drain the chiller and refugium into the display? I guess your looking for the OM flow... technically you could run that on the top sump draining back into the display, but it would be better just to run it on a closed loop.