Beginner pump / plumbing question

[Mombo]

I'm doing a fairly basic system. I'll have a skimmer and a fuge only no reacotors or anything. My tank is one of those that has 2 drains and 2 returns.

I'm getting a DC pump that has a controller on it that lets you adjust the flow of the pump up and down as I need to.

I see most people put a ball valve in between the pump and returns so they can control the flow.

Is that something I can bypass since I have a dc pump or is there still a reason to install ball valves?

 

[dbl]

The ball value is likely not necessary given your controllable pump. But you will want to at least put a union shortly after your pump for maintenance reasons. The pump will need cleaning and eventually replaced, so you want to be able to remove it without having to redo your plumbing. A lot of the ball valves you see are probably a true union ball valve (just a guess) so it provides both adjust-ability and ease of pump removal. My $.02.

 

[Daddy-o]

Make sure that your overflow can handle the amount of your return pump water and you can just run it wide open

 

[Labridaedicted]

I like to keep a valve anyways to shut when I kill the pump. Check valves aren't 100% reliable.

 

[Fishnerd7]

I asked this same question a few weeks ago and a few of the members were saying a union is fine but you do not want to restrict the flow of your pump by an external valve. this places undue stress on the pump. I can agree with that. i can see myself forgetting to open that valve at some point as well if I'm doing cleaning. I'm going with a union there. i am curious about being able to run the pump wide open though. i may not have enough sump for that.

 

[Daddy-o]

I asked this same question a few weeks ago and a few of the members were saying a union is fine but you do not want to restrict the flow of your pump by an external valve. this places undue stress on the pump. I can agree with that. i can see myself forgetting to open that valve at some point as well if I'm doing cleaning. I'm going with a union there. i am curious about being able to run the pump wide open though. i may not have enough sump for that.

The amount of overflow is controlled by how much water your return sends to the main tank In theory you could run a 1 quart sump and still pump thousands of gallons. Limited only by the size and flow of the overflow in the main tank.
Cheers! Mark

 

[Idoc]

I asked this same question a few weeks ago and a few of the members were saying a union is fine but you do not want to restrict the flow of your pump by an external valve. this places undue stress on the pump. I can agree with that. i can see myself forgetting to open that valve at some point as well if I'm doing cleaning. I'm going with a union there. i am curious about being able to run the pump wide open though. i may not have enough sump for that.

I just recently setup my system...cycling now. I have a 75g tank with approx. 25-30g additional water in the sump. I am using a Varios-6 DC pump...I was concerned this might be too much pump for my system and a resulting "flood" could occur if it accidentally was put into maximum flow! So, I tested it to be sure...I shut off my full siphon drain line and turned the pump on 100% to ensure that my 1" emergency drain line could handle the flow (in case my full siphon line would ever be totally blocked). Success!! The emergency line was able to easily handle the flow out of the tank into the sump without raising the water level in the DT. This was a really good piece of mind to know! I would suggest doing similar to ensure your emergency line can handle the max flow from the pump!

 

[Grey Guy]

I'm doing a fairly basic system. I'll have a skimmer and a fuge only no reacotors or anything. My tank is one of those that has 2 drains and 2 returns.

I'm getting a DC pump that has a controller on it that lets you adjust the flow of the pump up and down as I need to.

I see most people put a ball valve in between the pump and returns so they can control the flow.

Is that something I can bypass since I have a dc pump or is there still a reason to install ball valves?

I put a valve between the return and pump for a shut off if I want to remove the punp. Depends on what you mean, the return to the pump or the return to the tank from the pump. To my knowledge, you always want the return to the pump wide open, and only make adjustments to the discharge of the pump. Closing the intake to the pump will cause it to overload.

 

[Mombo]

I will definitely check that while I'm cycling. I'm not planning on having a pump that is super oversized for my tank just a little bit. I doubt I would ever run it at full blast though as it has a controller that comes with the pump and I want to tune it to have the right amount of flow for my fuge I am going to set up. I'm aiming for about 5-600 gph, after considering plumbing etc, from the return pump and the rest of the flow will be from powerheads

 

[Mombo]

When you say return to the pump do you mean the drain into the sump?

I'm mainly talking about the pump return to the DT in this thread. Def always going to have the drains fully open.

I will def add a union. For cleaning etc. when the pump turns off it will siphon from the DT back into the sump if I don't have a ball valve to stop it. But as long as my returns are not way under water and my sump can handle the water the siphons in it wouldn't matter. Might be worth doing a ball valve/union just to prevent this though.

 

[Idoc]

When you say return to the pump do you mean the drain into the sump?

I'm mainly talking about the pump return to the DT in this thread. Def always going to have the drains fully open.

I will def add a union. For cleaning etc. when the pump turns off it will siphon from the DT back into the sump if I don't have a ball valve to stop it. But as long as my returns are not way under water and my sump can handle the water the siphons in it wouldn't matter. Might be worth doing a ball valve/union just to prevent this though.

I ended up putting a cepex ball valve on my return line. I have no plans to restrict the flow from my pump since its DC controllable. But, I like to have the option to shut that line completely off for some reason.

Your full siphon drain line won't more than likely be wide open, actually. I'm using a herbie design and mine is about 1/2 open to create equilibrium. If you are using a full siphon line, make sure toy put the money into a good spears gate valve rather than a ball valve on that line. To get that crucial flow equilibrium, it takes the tiniest of adjustments that will be difficult with a ball valve! I literally just bump my gate valve handle to make adjustments that have big effects!

 

[beaslbob]

I'm doing a fairly basic system. I'll have a skimmer and a fuge only no reacotors or anything. My tank is one of those that has 2 drains and 2 returns.

I'm getting a DC pump that has a controller on it that lets you adjust the flow of the pump up and down as I need to.

I see most people put a ball valve in between the pump and returns so they can control the flow.

Is that something I can bypass since I have a dc pump or is there still a reason to install ball valves?

There should be absolutely no need for any variable speed on the pump ever. The overflow will return water to the sump at whatever rate the water is returned to the tank.

You do need to make these adjustments:

1) insure that under power out there is no flood. (look out for siphon formed through the pumped return lines. keep the ends above tank water or add small holes above the water line to break that siphon)

2) normal operation return with the power returns.

1&2 can be easily tested by turning the pump power off waiting then back on again.

and

3) insure the with overflow failure (siphon break, blockage) the display does not flood. the sump should run out of water before the display floods.

my .02

 

[Daddy-o]

We picked up a couple of float switches to run an ato and to turn off pump return if water level drops.

 

[Daddy-o]

I put a valve between the return and pump for a shut off if I want to remove the punp. Depends on what you mean, the return to the pump or the return to the tank from the pump. To my knowledge, you always want the return to the pump wide open, and only make adjustments to the discharge of the pump. Closing the intake to the pump will cause it to overload.

I prefer to not run one of my pumps with a restricted intake or output. If you think you may want to slow the amount of water going back to the display, put a "T" after the pump and run one side to the DT and the other to the skimmer section of your sump. Put a valve on the side that runs to the skimmer. Now to slow down the amount of flow to the DT, open the valve as needed. Pump runs wide open, and extra flow gets recirculated.
Cheers! Mark

 

[Grey Guy]

Sounds good. I was just concerned because I thought someone was suggesting that they would cut back on the intake to the pump.

 

[KStatefan]

I prefer to not run one of my pumps with a restricted intake or output. If you think you may want to slow the amount of water going back to the display, put a "T" after the pump and run one side to the DT and the other to the skimmer section of your sump. Put a valve on the side that runs to the skimmer. Now to slow down the amount of flow to the DT, open the valve as needed. Pump runs wide open, and extra flow gets recirculated.
Cheers! Mark

What do you gain by routing the extra flow to the skimmer section?

 

[Daddy-o]

What do you gain by routing the extra flow to the skimmer section?

It will allow you to run a pump that is larger than your overflow can handle without restricting the flow of your pump. I am a big believer in buying oversized equipment so that it may handle my future needs as well as my current needs. It will allow you to run your pump wide open which I believe will cause less wear and tear on the pump itself. You also get more flow through your sump or refugium which may eliminate the need for any powerheads or extra pumps to move water through your sump system. I am a big fan of lots of flow.
Cheers! Mark