sump plumbing help please

[saltytoes]

hi all i'm building this system for a 55g tank it has 2- 1" bulkhead drains and the sump will be 2-10g tanks one for refugium and one for an oversized pump tank that i want to use for water changes. i'm useing 1"ID hose from the bulkheads into the sump but im unsure what sizes of pipe to use for the return manifold. also is the manifold design i have pictured ok or should it be split up differently? i will be useing a mag drive 7. anyone see a problem or anything i forgot? TIA...

 

[outy]

nice graphics


i believe 3/4 pvc is what the pump is plumbed for and i would not reduce were you have it highlighted

 

[bassnman11]

I would use 1 in all the way. You can always gate it down if need be, or reduce it in the tank for higher velocity.

 

[saltytoes]

thanks outy i used paint to draw it was a lot easier than i thought after i got it figured out. I know in some large volume situations i have seen manifolds built with a much larger pipe size at least double than the output on the pump(mag 24) i was told that it was done to maintain the volume of the flow then you reduce it somewhere closer to the tank with lockline etc. to get velocity.

bassnman11 i plan on just going right over the back with the returns all in pvc i guess it would be best to reduce at the output in the tank i was just thinking a smaller valve is a cheaper valve if it wouldn’t hurt the volume to much…..

 

[saltytoes]

hmm 90+ views and 2 replies am i overthinking this or is there more to manifold design than most people think. I know this or that will work but is it optimal ?

 

[sjm817]

Use 1" for the return plumbing. Reduce to 3/4" at the top where you go over the tank.

You should mix SW at least overnight. You will leave the return in mixing mode that long?

You will probably want the water level lower in the left sump. be sure there is enough reserve capacity to hold the water that will drain back form the display when the pump is off.

 

[ybenormal]

I was going to make the same comment about mixing SW. I'd recommend a separate mixing container like a brute trash can and maybe a cheap MJ1200. The MJ can be used to mix the SW and to pump it to the sump when needed.

 

[saltytoes]

overnight? ive heard that before but have never done it and have never noticed any effects from it in many years, the new water will be reintruduced slowly but i'll only mix it for an hour or so....
i'm all to familiar with leaving extra reserve capacity, i wanted to set it so that with power offthe pump/mixing tank will be nearly full.
1" to 3/4 is what i was thinking also thanks everyone!

 

[saltytoes]

Does anyone else think this mixing method is a major concern? the water will be mixing at a very high gph in a very small volume
around 700gph in 9g or so for an hour then slowly introduced to approximately 40 gallons.
ive always done it like this so this time i figured i would incorporate the mixing tank and pump into the sump currently i have a 7g that gets 2g , a 10g that gets 2g, and a 28g tank that gets 5g, all get it at least once a week.
i mix in a 5g bucket with a rio 2100 around 600gph for sometimes as little as an hour.
i have always noticed better polyp extension etc after the change so i assume its not a bad thing but maybe it could be better?

 

[Pbrown3701]

THe reason people use larger diameter on the pump outlet is because...

Larger diameter pipe provides less friction loss to the running water inside. So the larger the diameter the less head loss for a given length of pipe. So you should use the larger diameter pipe for as long as you can before throttling it down for higher velocity. However, in your case, I can not imagine that it would make a lick of difference. Also, by throttling it down, you add more friction than would be saved by going with the larger pipe up to that point - if that makes sense. In other words, it would have to be a long run of pipe to be benificial.

 

[saltytoes]

yes Pbrown3701 that does make sense thanks.