Water changes.

[Wur]

Hey guys. I recently purchased a used 90 gallon with a 30 (maybe 40) gallon sump. Currently the return is just a straight shot from the pump back to the tank.

I am going to add a reactor for GFO which i was just going to T off the main line and ball valve to control the flow. My question is can i put another T in with a ball valve that runs to my drain for water changes? And if I do this should I make it so that I turn off the pump and valve off the line to allow it to gravity feed back down and out of the tank? Or should I just put a valve to stop the flow into the tank and force it out the drain line with the pump.

I guess essentially the question is should I have my pump forcing the water out the drain or just allow gravity to do the work?

And last question. Everything is hard plumbed as of right now, I had regular water running thru it when I was cleaning everything and it was kind of noisy (vibrations from the pump). Should I use soft tubing say after the drain line up to the tank? Would that help by allowing the pump to have a little wiggle room?

I was going to design the system with that software i see everyone using for a visual but I'm not sure what it's called.

Thanks for any help you can give.

 

[tommy tomato]

There is no need to force water thru the drain unless you are draining into something higher ... I would just tee off the main and pump water out of the sump since you're already teeing off. Leave the drain side as is. I would recommend using a gate valve versus a ball valve for the gfo... There will be a lot of flow coming off the main and you only need a trickle on gfo. Gate valve will give you more control.