Plumbing

[Koralkid]

Hey my question is...
I recently bought a overflow box as my tanks isnt drilled and i wanted to set up a sump. The Overflow box is rated at 3000Lph or around 800Gph i am of the understanding that it is a reef octopus overflow box,i hav already constructed my sump.

So next i purchased the pump, it is called a sedra pondmaster, i am of the understanding that it is sold under the name dolfin in the US. The pump is rated at 4000LpH or 900Gph and has a head height of 5.2metres, or 17feet. The distance from my sump to my tank is about a metre and a half or aout 4 feet.

Getting to my question...just though background info was important...

The pump will be submerged in the sump and will have a SQWD on the end in the tank for current purposes. So this should slow it down somewhat. Will this be enough to not flood the overflow box?

Also i want to run a chiller soo as summer is coming up here....Im in the southern hemisphere. So is it possible or is there a plumbing device out there in the form of a tap im thinking that can divert some of the flow from the pump through the chiller because i cant just run the chiller in line becvaude the flow would be to great and the water wouldnt be slow enough to be chilled.

Thanks for looking your help would be greatly appreciated.
:eek2:

 

[Tommyc]

Check this marine depot link out.

SCWD - Marine Depot

It lists input flow and output flow for a SCWD. Gives you an idea of the head loss. You'll have to calculate back to lph. It doesn't go up to 900 gph, but if you know where (i.e. how high) the SCWD will be, you can calc the head pressure and then figure out what pressure the SCWD will actually see. Then the link should give you an idea of what you'll see on the outflow of the scwd.

Looks like at high flow rates the SCWD reduces the flow by ~10%. Add on your loss due to head pressure, elbows in the plumbing etc, .... I'd bet you'll be okay. But that advice is worth exactly what you paid for it..... ;-)

regarding the chiller...you're talking about a simple plumbing T with a ball valve on the outflows to the chiller. Heck, a ball valve on the outflow to the SCWD would insure you didn't overflow the tank by allowing you to throttle back the outflow from the pump, so you could put valves on both. check out marine depots "plumbing parts" link and look at "tees" and "ball valves". you'll get the picture.

Tom

 

[Koralkid]

thanks very much tom im having a look now thankyou thankyou thankyou

 

[Koralkid]

are there any ball valves that drvert the flow in 2 different directions?these pictures look as though they are just one way valves?

 

[Koralkid]

and do ball valves put pressure on the pump?

 

[kgross]

Ball valves put a restriction on the water flow, which causes more pressure to be created by the pump. This does not hurt the pump in any way. As for as your original question, yes with the scwd on the pump it will put out much less than the 800 gph that your overflow will handle, I would guess you will get around 400 to 500 gph out of your pump with the scwd and plumbing connected to it.

Kim

 

[Tommyc]

are there any ball valves that drvert the flow in 2 different directions?these pictures look as though they are just one way valves?

Not quite sure what you mean here. That's what a "T" does. Takes water in....sends it two ways (output). Put ball valves on both outputs. Like this....

ball valve to chiller (restricted)
^
|
|
------> ball valve to SCWD (probably wide open)
|
|
^
input from sump

what Kim said about the pressure. But as the link previously posted suggests....looks like at high flow rates, the head pressure from the SCWD only drops the flow rate ~10%... i'm still betting you'll be okay. Adding the ball valve to the SCWD is just insurance and you'll probably just keep it wide open and unrestricted...it just allows you to control the flow rate if you don't like the SCWD switching so fast. In the picture above...you would not want to reverse the outputs to the SCWD and chiller ...if you did, and the ball valve to the SCWD was unrestriced (wide open), you'd have no pressure that would force the water through the chiller (water would just flow straight to the SCWD).

There's actually a nice section on plumbing techniques/dos and don'ts in Sprung and Delbeek's Vol 3. But it is a pricey book. Good one though.

tom

 

[Koralkid]

thanks heaps tom, so what your saying is that u want the SQWD first so that the majority of the pressure from the pump goes to there and the left over or the remaining goes to the chiller this might not be as much but it is what the chiller needs?
Also how far away from the T should i put the ball valves? is this important?

 

[Tommyc]

doesn't really matter where you put the ball valves after the Tee. Where ever is convenient.

another way to understand the connection issue is just to remember that the water flow will choose the path of least resistance. If in our example above, the input comes from below and there is no resistance up top (i.e. you put the SCWD there and the ball valve is wide open, which it may be), then next to no water would go right to the chiller. that would be bad. On the other hand, if you put the chiller on top, and closed the ball valve to only get a little flow through it, then all the other water would be forced through the SCWD to the right. In very simplistic terms, if the water doesn't have a "reason" (pressure) to make that right turn, it wont.