inlet for a closed loop manifold

[erlandsontrevor]

I am currently in the early stages of designing a closed loop manifold for my 180g AGA. I would like to generate a flow rate in this manifold of a least 2000 gph. My question is this: What size does my drilled inlet that leads directly to my pump with the attached manifold have to be (Assuming I have done my homework and I know the exact size of the pump needed to produce the aforementioned flow rate in the main tank relative to head, elbows, tees, etc)?

thank you all in advance for your help

 

[superedge88]

2000 gph isn't too bad, you could go as small as 1.5" bulkhead (would require a 2.5" hole) 2000 gph is pretty low flow for a reef tank closed loop, whatcha wanting to keep?

 

[erlandsontrevor]

Thanks for the help superedge88. In your opinion do you think I will be able to pull greater than 2000 gph through the 1 1/2 inch inlet and if so what do you belive would be the max flow rate through a 1 1/2 inch inlet would be? The original reason I choose 2000 gph is that I thought any more gph would require a greater bulk head and if I am going to be drilling a 2 1/2 hole already for the 1 1/2 inch flow through I might be loosing structural intergrity of the display tank... yet the way it sounds is this may not necessarily be true (having to drill a bigger hole to allow the pump to pull with a greater flow rate). I am also going to be getting another 1000+ gph from my return located in my sump which should bring me close to a 17x turnover per hour in my display when in combination with the manifold. So this gets me back to your original question .... I do want to begin to keep sps corals. If you think that I could still beef up the pump on the closed loop to genereate a greater flow rate in the display tank and a 1 1/2 inlet could handle the pull through I would definatley be interested in hearing an external pump that you might recommend that could do just this. I just want to try to eliminate any power heads in the display tank and get away with drilling only one more inlet in my supposed "reef ready" 180gal AGA.

Again thanks for the help and time.