plumbing Question

[the_fuzz]

This may seem like a stupid question,

but does the plumbing down to the sump need to be the same size and the return plumbing to the tank?

I made the mistake of doing the plumbing before I bought the pump. So the plumbing from my weir is 1 1/4" 32mm all the way through.

The outlet on my pump is 1" or 25mm.

Should I redo the weir plumbing or will this be ok? The pump is 8500L/H

[Ben]

Hi Fuzz,

No you will require a larger return pipe diameter than your input (due to water being forced into the tank and only having gravity to remove it).

The size you have currently should be fine but the only way to be sure is to run it. Depending on number of elbows etc even 32mm may be to small.

Just keep an eye on it for the first few hours. generally you will know within a minute or two if there is going to be an issue.

[fongyfong]

My reef octopus tank has the hole 30mm for the water that enters the sump and the return hole back to the tank is 25mm, this came stock so i say you should be fine

[bigtank]

This may seem like a stupid question,

but does the plumbing down to the sump need to be the same size and the return plumbing to the tank?

I made the mistake of doing the plumbing before I bought the pump. So the plumbing from my weir is 1 1/4" 32mm all the way through.

The outlet on my pump is 1" or 25mm.

Should I redo the weir plumbing or will this be ok? The pump is 8500L/H

There are reducers out there, so in theory you can work the other way and increase the size you need using them.

Its a bummer to re-do all the plumbing so you could try it out 1st.

[Matthew]

This may seem like a stupid question,

but does the plumbing down to the sump need to be the same size and the return plumbing to the tank?

I made the mistake of doing the plumbing before I bought the pump. So the plumbing from my weir is 1 1/4" 32mm all the way through.

The outlet on my pump is 1" or 25mm.

Should I redo the weir plumbing or will this be ok? The pump is 8500L/H

G'day

Do not redo the plumbing.

1. Test to see if too much volume is actually being pumped.

2. If there is too much volume, put a T junction into the existing plumbing and put a tap on the new route you just built them using flexible pipe simply send any excess back to your sump.

This way you simply returning any extra volume to the sump and are not sending it into the tank.

cya

Matthew

[Link2Hell]

the gravity feed sump return should always be at least twice the

diameter of the pump feed input line IMO

is the sump connect to a bank of tanks or just one (seems like

big pump for a single tank with one weir)

what size tank is it ?

might be easier to use a smaller pump depending on tank size

and turn over rate

you will need to fit a tap in pump line to reduce the flow to a rate

the return line can handle without causing overload of the return

increasing the pipe size with a reducer is like pouring a 20 lt bucket

through a Coke bottle ........... the restriction is still there as the

drilling for the bulkhead doesn't change

[the_fuzz]

the gravity feed sump return should always be at least twice the

diameter of the pump feed input line IMO

is the sump connect to a bank of tanks or just one (seems like

big pump for a single tank with one weir)

what size tank is it ?

might be easier to use a smaller pump depending on tank size

and turn over rate

you will need to fit a tap in pump line to reduce the flow to a rate

the return line can handle without causing overload of the return

increasing the pipe size with a reducer is like pouring a 20 lt bucket

through a Coke bottle ........... the restriction is still there as the

drilling for the bulkhead doesn't change

The tank is 1000ltrs, so I thought 8x turnover would be perfect taking in head height.

I will hook it up with what I've got here and see what happens - the head off to bunnings for the fixes

Thanks to everyone for their advice