Water Drainage Opinion Needed

[Editour2]

Hi everyone,
need opinions on the following: I am currently setting up my tank with a 1" drain and 3/4" returns, (AGA Megaflow Kit). I was speaking with a fellow reefer at NERAC II and he suggested that I increase the drainage to 1.5" directly after the bulkhead. I have a Panworld return pump rated at 1110gph, (everything will be housed in the stand). What are your opinions on this? Do you feel that this would be beneficial or would you consider the 1" drain satisfactory?
P.S.: I am setting up a T connection with ball valve, (from the return pump), to return some water back into the sump, (in the event that the return is greater than the drainage volume).
Thanks,
Frank

 

[Corpus Callosum]

I use a 1.5" drain on my 900gph pump and I'm pushing a lot of flow through it.. it was very noisy then i added an external durso air valve mod and it was fine.

got any pictures of your current setup?

 

[Editour2]

No pics at this time.

 

[Corpus Callosum]

have you considered drilling a bigger hole for a 1.5" bulkhead?

i have some dremel diamond tipped grinding bits and can help if you want

 

[Editour2]

The tank is acrylic and believe it or not I just drilled it to fit the 1" which came with the AGA kit. It would be difficult to make that hole larger and would rather just purchase a converter.

 

[qy7400]

The only reason I could use was if you're planning a remote sump. If youââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢re trying to prevent clogging and/or increase flow the BH is your problem. I belong to the school of low flow thru the sump and high flow via CL or PH. My current setup uses the AGA mega flows with the 1" drain 3/4 return, no changes. The return/skimmer is a Dart with 2 Tunze 6100 for in tank. The low flow sump lowers chances for micro bubbles and kinda gives you a re-circ skimmer.

Only my opinion and whatââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s been working for me but I think you can stay put with what AGA gives you unless your sump is not under the tank.

 

[billsreef]

You don't really get any advantage by increasing the drain pipe size after the 1" bulkhead. That bulkhead will restrict your flow and be the bottleneck preventing any benifits from larger piping. If you increase the size of the hole for a 1 1/2" bulkhead than you will have some real benifits. It's not that hard to do with a hole saw on acrylic, but does require a very steady hand and slow drill speeds when starting the cut.

 

[Billfish]

A 1 " Bulkhead is Vertical on a overflow. If you are going straight down into your sump from the bulkhead fitting 1" is fine. If you are doing any horizontal piping after this I would recommend upsizing the pipe on the horizontal and especially into the sump to decrease flow thru the pipe and hence the amount of bubbles entering the sump.

 

[reefly]

you can also use a dremel to make the hole bigger, I would go to the larger blukhead

 

[pyro383]

You could also use the 3/4 as drainage. That is what I plan on doing and bringing the return over the top.

 

[woodworker1959]

If you want to increase the size of a hole their is a tool used which is called an OOPS Arbor by Starrett. It only cost $7.50 and works well. You use your origional hole saw for the pilot hole. Your origional hole say screws onto the OOPS Arbor the arbor is inserted into your arbor with the correct sized hole say attached. Check out their web site, a picture will make it obvious.
http://www.mcfeelys.com/product.asp?productID=HS-0019
Hope it helps