I recently purchased 2x 230w RD3's for closed loops for my 475g build. I am currently trying to decide how I want to use one of the pumps. One will be a loser loop over the top through 2x seaswurls. The other is where I need some help. I have 4x 1.24" holes through the bottom of my tank. Would you use a oceans motions flow diverted for these holes or just run the pump through them with no flow diverter. If I did no oceansmotions I would run the pump on a apex to ramp up and down throughout the day to get random flow. My question is can the rd3's tolerate multiple ramps through the day. Say every 3 hours change intensity. I don't want to shorten the life of the nice but expensive pumps.
Question about RD3 230w pump
- Thread starter jlfalin
- Start date
slief
RC Sponsor
They can tolerate ramps without issue but they are soft start pumps meaning they don't ramp fast. It takes several seconds to the pump to reach full power during a ramp. You will not be able to create waves or anything like that. If it were me, I would not use flow diverters. They aren't terribly reliable, they tend to restrict flow and it's just another point of failure. I would use the bottom closed loops to prevent detritus from settling and run all outlets at the same time. That is actually how I use my closed loop and in my case, mine dumps out on the bottom below my live rock. I have a few different flow profiles for my closed loop. A night profile which slows the pump down to about 80 watts. My day time profile is about 120 watts. I have a Flush profile that kicks in when my Tunze's go into high flow flush mode. The Flush mode kicks in at random intervals several times a day. The Flush profile for my RD3 230 kicks it up to 170 or so watts to insure that anything that may have settle under my rocks is pushed up into the water column while my Tunze's run at full constant power for a couple minutes on one side of the tank then the next. The switch back and forth for several minutes. One side on, one side off. This helps to get any suspended detritus that is in the water up and over my overflow. For random flow, I depend on the Tunze's which are really much better suited for generating random flow that is much wider and effective throughout a large tank. The same could be said about other pumps such as the Ecotechs but I am just partial to Tunze's because of the abuse they will take without failure. I beat the living hell out of mine and rarely ever clean them. They've been running for several years in my tank and only been cleaned a few times. Despite the lack of maintenance and constant ON/OFF pulsing, they never skim a beat.
You'll be fine ramping them, I'm sure. Mine has been on basement return pump duty for a bit over a year and is effectively silent. Scott/Sleif has at least one 230 on closed loop duty and seems quite happy.
Ha! He beat me to it! If I remember, Scott has his program available to view on the Reeftronics site.
Ha! He beat me to it! If I remember, Scott has his program available to view on the Reeftronics site.
slief
RC Sponsor
Thanks for the input! And yes, all my programming is viewable on Reeftronics but that is quite the can of worms since my system is very extensive.
http://www.reeftronics.net/programns.php?member=scottl
slief
RC Sponsor
I don't have any pictures of my closed loop setup as far as the lines in the tank but I can describe it.
My RD3 230 closed look comes out of the pump into a 2" union ball valve then goes up to a 2" T fitting. That splits off into a pair of 1" lines that enters the bottom of the tank through the center overflow via a pair of 1" bulkheads. Those lines connect to a pair of 1" bulkheads on 2 sides the 4 sided overflow. On the tank side of the overflow I have a pair of elbows that send the flow downward. At the base of the overflow on the bottom of the tank there is a 1" pvc pipe that circles the perimeter of the overflow. It has 1/4" or so sized holes drilled in it about 1" apart all the way around the overflow. Those holes are drilled to face the sides of the tank so the flow is sent across the bottom of the tank below the rock. There are 2 T fittings in that pipe that connect to the closed loop lines coming out of the overflow.
So from the sound of it I'm guessing bare bottom. Mine will have sand so
I can't have a lot of direct flow across the sand. If I was going bare bottom I think the holes blowing across the bottom would be perfect. I'm going to plumb up my CL when my PVC gets here and try a couple of ideas in the tank to see what gives the flow I want/need. I may try that idea with a slight upward direction to see how it moves the sand.
I can't have a lot of direct flow across the sand. If I was going bare bottom I think the holes blowing across the bottom would be perfect. I'm going to plumb up my CL when my PVC gets here and try a couple of ideas in the tank to see what gives the flow I want/need. I may try that idea with a slight upward direction to see how it moves the sand.
slief
RC Sponsor
If nothing else, it will blow the sand out creating little hills around the rock work.
