return pump sizes and what not

[tonkajeep600]

ok so i finally got to buy my wife her "barbie dream house". this means that i now have a basement for my aquatic madness. heres the pump questions...on the main floor of the house i have a 135g and a 55g that i would like to plumb into the basement into a super filter/refugium. in the basement i plan to eventually build a plywood tank 12'Lx4'Hx4'D as well as a little amature coral farm. the plywood tank will be last because of sheer cost, but i would like to plumb all the tanks together, thing is im not sure how to figure the pumps i need. i have found some "high pressure" pumps but really just dont know what i should look for, or if i could even run the pumps in line to try for some sort of exponential effect. any advice would be great. thank you

 

[tonkajeep600]

dang...should i post this elsewhere? 5 days 87 views and not 1 idea...

 

[darth reefer]

If you are going to be pushing water from the basement between multiple tanks you are going to need some pretty serious pumps. I would also suggest more than one so if you have a failure the system is still circulating. I use a iwaki external on my closed loop, it works great but is a little noisy. I have heard good things about the reeflo pumps. The only way to know what pump you need is to measure how far up you are going to be pushing the water so you can calculate head pressure and compare to what gph you are trying to reach. Most manufactures provide head pressure tables on their websites.

:lightsaber2:

 

[tonkajeep600]

holy bageezes thank you! yeah, its looking like about 15' worth of vertical push. thing is does the lateral distance account for anything or is that not so crucial? and oh boy i know im going to invest some $$ on the pumps, but it would be worth it in the long run...i hope lol. and thank you again.

 

[rdnelson]

I would add that you will need to consider the head loss for all the bends. My bet is that you would be better with a pressure pump but I am no expert. I would bet GrouperTheropy could give some good info. a robotic would be another that may be able to guide you.

 

[darth reefer]

rdnelson99;823568 wrote: I would add that you will need to consider the head loss for all the bends. My bet is that you would be better with a pressure pump but I am no expert. I would bet GrouperTheropy could give some good info. a robotic would be another that may be able to guide you.

Good advice there^^. Vertical is what you really need to worry about horizontal flow doesn't really change much. You do need to factor in your bends in the PVC like Rich said. 90s will restrict flow more than 45s and so on. I am by no means an expert so maybe someone else will jump in with some wisdom.

 

[rdnelson]

By the way..... My post should have said "Acroholic" not "a robotic". LOL. Got to love auto correct.

 

[nsconductor]

Here is a pretty decent head calculator for small systems like reef tanks. Wouldn't use it to design the pump requirements in a chemical plant, but it is pretty close: