Drain Pipe

[Psionicdragon]

I am in the process of resetting my tank.

I will be using a reeflo dart as my return.

The drains are going to be 1 inch pvc pipes x 4. I cannot increase the size due to certain difficulties.

I will be connecting the pipes like this: the 1 inches will be paired and connected to 1 x 1 x 1.5 tees. After the size increase to 1.5, there will be two 1.5 inch pipes which will connect to a 1.5 x 1.5 x 2. A tube connecting the drains to the skimmer.



My question is, after all the modification with the Tees to increase the size, will the drains be able to handle the return, dart?

 

[flyyyguy]

4 1" drains are only going to drain you 600 gph apiece in a perfect world assuming you merge them smoothly. You probably wont get much more than that(if any) out of the dart anyway. But cutting it close isnt a good idea. What if one of the drains clogged??

I would actually question if you really need to run that dart wide open as a return pump anyway.

What skimmer are you using?? There is no point in moving any more water through your sump than you skimmer can process. If you do then this excess flow is just dirty water being sent back to the tank. I dont have the delusion that we can skim 100% of it, but if you roughly match the return flo to the amount of water that your skimmer is processing, then you are at least making an effort.

So for conversation purposes....lets say you end up with 2400 gph out of that dart after you plumb it.....is your skimmer actually processing 2400 GPH of water??

Put a ball valve on the output of that dart and taper it back to what you skimmer is processing and you will be fine.

 

[Psionicdragon]

Hey Fly, I'll be using a volcano shorty soon.

 

[Psionicdragon]

Wouldn't there be a reduction in flow from the process of t'ing off the 4 pipes into one?

 

[flyyyguy]

Not very much if any if done well. To get the most out of it I would actually recommend not merging them together as many times as you say. Maybe just 2 seperate 1.5" drain lines, instead of the last merge into 2".

You still want to assume that at any given time one of your 1" drains could get clogged completely. Otherwise, Murphys law will see to it that it does, and water will end up on your floor.

What pump drives that Volcano??

 

[Psionicdragon]

orca - dart

 

[Psionicdragon]

the reason why i want to t off everything to 2 inches is because i want all the drain water to enter into the skimmer.

I added a ball valve to the outlet of the dart to reduce the flow.

 

[Psionicdragon]

Recommended feed gph to skimmer is at 1500.

 

[flyyyguy]

Then your drain program will work perfectly how you originally planned it, along with that ball valve to taper the flow back accordingly.

 

[Psionicdragon]

thanks flyy,

really appreciate your help