I'm in the process of plumbing my new 55 gallon tank and have a question about my return. My pump is a mag 7 which pumps about 480-500 gallons at the height it needs to pump to ( i know its a lot, but it's what the school had so i'm going to try and make due for now). I've got the pump coming straight up to a T then it is splitting and going to two 45 degree elbows where it will then go to each corner of the tank. Dropping into the tank i've got a 11 inch piece of 1/2 inch pipe (1/2 inch throughout as thats the diameter of the output on the pump). To help distribute the flow i drilled 15 3/16 inch holes into each of the two pipes. There are 8 holes that will direct water towards the front of the tank spaced one inch apart, then 90 degrees to that there are another 7 holes drilled one inch apart directing water kind of along the back of the tank (the two sets aren't exactly 90 degrees from one another).
My question is if i drilled enough holes or if i drilled too many and should cut a new piece of pipe and drill fewer or smaller holes? Working out the area of holes i've figured i've got .58 square inches of room for water to flow out of, and the area of the pipe cross section is .196 square inches, so it seems like i've got more than enough so i won't have any back pressure that will hold back my pump from operating to it's max or put undue stress on any of the joints, but also create enough current in the tank. I will also have a powerhead or two in the tank circulating water around, the tank will be fish only, with a little bit of live rock for now. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
Edited because i screwed up some calcs on the area and pipe diameter
My question is if i drilled enough holes or if i drilled too many and should cut a new piece of pipe and drill fewer or smaller holes? Working out the area of holes i've figured i've got .58 square inches of room for water to flow out of, and the area of the pipe cross section is .196 square inches, so it seems like i've got more than enough so i won't have any back pressure that will hold back my pump from operating to it's max or put undue stress on any of the joints, but also create enough current in the tank. I will also have a powerhead or two in the tank circulating water around, the tank will be fish only, with a little bit of live rock for now. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
Edited because i screwed up some calcs on the area and pipe diameter
