I'm going to be upgrading to a 120 soon. Both of the tanks I've had just used a basic plumbing setup but I'm considering doing a manifold this time. I will have a media reactor, possibly a UV sterilizer and would like to have one for future use so I don't have to have a pump for each piece of equipment. I'm looking for advice on an easy setup for this and what size return pump I would need. Also, I'm a visual person so any pictures you have of your own setups would be nice.thanks
Manifolds
- Thread starter Dmac
- Start date
just my personal opinion (which is generally useless in most instances )
I don't like manifolds off the return pump - primarily because I keep the flow in to / out of my tanks as constant as possible to keep drain noise down and limit my chances of any overflow or floods. My skimmers performance is also pretty closely tied to the flow feeding them and messing with valves on a manifold turns into the need to adjust 2, 3 or more valves to keep everything tuned and working.
For sterilizer, reactor etc - I run little pumps for each but I power them using a power plug splitter.
Doing it this way prevents me from having to mess with drain / return valves.
I don't like manifolds off the return pump - primarily because I keep the flow in to / out of my tanks as constant as possible to keep drain noise down and limit my chances of any overflow or floods. My skimmers performance is also pretty closely tied to the flow feeding them and messing with valves on a manifold turns into the need to adjust 2, 3 or more valves to keep everything tuned and working.
For sterilizer, reactor etc - I run little pumps for each but I power them using a power plug splitter.
Doing it this way prevents me from having to mess with drain / return valves.
I agree here. I run a separate dedicated pump for my reactors as well.
On my previous tank, I did a manifold and I could never get the flow correct or consistent T'ing off my main pump. That's just my experience though.
I run a 120 gallon, a 40 gallon, uv, and reactor off of one return pump a havent had any issues with it in the past year
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