Plumbing/pump Question

[reefs4life]

Hey guys, so I just downgraded to a 150 but I kept all the same equipment I had on my 210. The only thing I'm having an issue with is the return pump. I have a hammerhead pump with a huge manifold, about 8 outlets. At the moment, I'm using only 5. The issue is that my return lines are 3/4", there are two of them, and I have to keep the valves about 1/3 opened to get the right flow. Now I feel like I have a lot of wasted power because of that so I'm wondering if I could downgrade my pump. I need to mention that I do have about 35 feet of vertical tubing and maybe 10 feet of horizontal tubing for each line and there are two. I know it's a lot of plumbing but it's also turned down a lot so I feel like it's a waste. What you guys think I should/can do? Thanks in advance, Fortunato

 

[edd]

35 vertical feet for gravity drains sounds like a lot. I'm wondering how much flow your actually getting. maybe thats why you can't return much water?

 

[reefs4life]

35 vertical feet for gravity drains sounds like a lot. I'm wondering how much flow your actually getting. maybe thats why you can't return much water?

See but I have no issues with returning water, I can turn them half way and probably fully open actually and it will return just fine.

All I'm saying is that if I have them turn up any higher than 1/3 of the way open, I get way too much flow in the tank/turnover through the sump. I just want to know if anyone thinks that I will be safe using a more economical and less powerful pump to achieve the same results that I have now.

 

[Dan_P]

See but I have no issues with returning water, I can turn them half way and probably fully open actually and it will return just fine.

All I'm saying is that if I have them turn up any higher than 1/3 of the way open, I get way too much flow in the tank/turnover through the sump. I just want to know if anyone thinks that I will be safe using a more economical and less powerful pump to achieve the same results that I have now.

If your pump is delivering more water to the aquarium than the pair of 3/4 return pipes can handle, I would say a smaller pump or reducing the flow are the only solutions if you do not want to increase the diameter of the return pipes. I assume the reason that the return lines are so long is because your sump is a couple floors away. What is your concern about whether it would be safe to use a smaller pump? Reliability?

 

[reefs4life]

Yeah the sump is one floor apart and on the opposite side of the display tank. My plan is to get a smaller pump but yes my concern is reliability. I'm hoping someone could give me some advice on a good pump I can downgrade to and still have the same output I'm getting now. I was thinking about the Blowhole 1450 given its high head

 

[edd]

i think some one just gave that pump a bad review. maybe duke.
if your pump is to big and gated back i think its a waste of electric. i have a 150 with sump in the basement I'm running a blue line 70, feeding 2 reactors, fuge and dumping in sump cause its kinda big. its been running over a year so i think its dependable.

 

[duke62]

Stay FAR away from the blowhole