redoing my system - suggestions/tips/advice?

[jacksonpt]

No, you bring up a very good point. The images certainly aren't to scale, but for the most part are reasonably close. The bottleneck/restriction you are talking about isn't something I thought about because the flow through the sump will be so low. It's something I'll give more thought to though as I start laying things out.

 

[SkiFletch]

You're right, it doesn't... I added it to the drawings, but felt like it made them harder to understand. As far as the pump goes - if it's a straight shot from the sump to the pump, does the distance matter? I know turns in the plumbing restrict flow which can lead to cavitation, but if it's a straight run is cavitation still a concern? Either way, because of space constraints, the run won't be any longer than it needs to be.

Cavitation becomes less of an issue with a straight shot to the pump than people who use 90's coming off the tank. Either way the principle remains the same, don't restrict the inlet of the pump. So if you have say 1/2" fittings on the pump, make sure you use at least 3/4" pipe supplying it, if not 1" and reduce down to the pump inlet at the last possible point. I will reiterate my reccomendation for a true union ball valve, or at least a ball valve and single union on the inlet side of the pump for not if, but when it needs service. Not sure if you said you were going to do this (will admit I didn't read the WHOLE thread) but it's really a good idea if you're going external.

 

[jacksonpt]

I will reiterate my reccomendation for a true union ball valve, or at least a ball valve and single union on the inlet side of the pump for not if, but when it needs service. Not sure if you said you were going to do this (will admit I didn't read the WHOLE thread) but it's really a good idea if you're going external.

it will definitely be easily removable, either via a true union or via fully threaded fittings. Eheim uses some odd sizes, so I gotta spend some time test fitting things and digging through the bins at lowes to see what is going to work best.

 

[fatrip]

The length of a tube can cause the cavitation as well because it is making a larger difference between the low pressure on the input and the high pressure on the output. It really depends on the pump and head pressure, but I am sure you are going to be using a good pump for this like ehiem, quiet one, or mag drive so you shouldn't have a problem.

Just going over your bottle necking thought in my head and I can see how it would come about, but only if it were a long tube, a tube going upward or the baffle being less than an inch away from the input of the pumps tube. Because of the width of the sump there would be an almost constant force of water, due to gravity, level with the input of the pump so the only cause of restriction would be the length of the tube going to the input of the pump due to the main restriction the size of the pumps intake.

**Opp took to long writing that post and skifletch posted it lol.