Converting to Basement Sump

[BfishLpond78]

Hello, in the process of possible changing my sump location to our basement. The configuration of the piping will be...odd. It will have to travel about 10 feet of vertical head and about 15 feet horizontal with about 8-10 turns. I am thinking flex PVC is the way to go, but I am unsure on the return pump.

I would like to supply the DT (furthest away), frag tank, 40 gallon breeder and a manifold for various reactors. I would prefer to stay internal if I can. External maintenance and leaks I'd like to stay away from if possible.

Thoughts?

 

[reefwiser]

You with have to go external and a pretty powerful pump. To fit that bill

 

[BfishLpond78]

You with have to go external and a pretty powerful pump. To fit that bill

Thoughts on the use of flex PVC?

 

[mrpizzaface]

Thoughts on the use of flex PVC?

I think you will have more success with rigid pipe and various elbow fittings, considering the amount of turns you say you need. I typically use the flex in simpler situations. I would pipe the horizontal run with all the turns rigid, and tie into it with the flex pvc for you vertical sections (up to the tank, and down to the sump).

 

[reefwiser]

Problem with flex would be the pressure need to get water where it needs to go.

 

[BfishLpond78]

Problem with flex would be the pressure need to get water where it needs to go.

I figured with the less resistance from hard turns would make it better. But I don’t know much

 

[reefwiser]

The shorter the distance the better. I have seen people put sumps in crawl spaces even. I am lucky I just go thru two walls and I am in the garage. No basement in this house.

 

[ca1ore]

I’m using ultra flex for my basement return. It’ll handle the operating pressures just fine. I’ve found it to present less back pressure on the pump than a whole bunch of elbows, but it won’t make narrow radius bends. Isolate an external pump with good ball valves and maintenance is easy; not really much additional chance of leaking.

 

[pagoda1958]

I have a basement sump on 65 gal tank, started out with 1" pvc pipe with 5 90 degree elbows, 17 ft run and 9 ft head pressure. with a Vectra m1 pump, I was getting about 650 gph turn over at 100%. 2 yrs ago I changed to 1" flex tubing. I am now getting 1000gph turnover and I turned my pump down to 85%. if you don't need super tight turns, flex is the way to go. pressure is not an issue

 

[Shad Quill]

Go with rigid plumbing and use a ton of unions. Figure out what you need for a pump and buy the next model up... better to have to dial it back than not have enough.

 

[tank o tang]

I have about 12' horizontal and 11' vertical and right now I'm using a mag12 thats doing good but upgraing to a mag18. I used 1-1/2" mix of flex pvc and hard pvc. Best thing I ever did was put my sump in the basement. I use a separate mag pump for the frag tank and manifold. The little extra heat from the mag pumps helps make up for the basement temp so the heaters don't work extra.

 

[tank o tang]

And theres a big difference between using sch40 flex pvc and flexible tubing.

 

[Reefer2]

External pressure pump will do better. Look at reeflo hammerhead, manta Ray or tiger shark. They are medium pressure pumps and will do it with ease.

 

[Shad Quill]

Here's a video of my set up. Basically what you are talking about doing and I'm running a reeflo yellowtail gold with power to spare.

 

[User]

To play devils advocate here- i literally just finished testing a Jebao DCP 18000. I tested with 1.5" sch40 17 feet straight up in my yard and got 1900 gph at 100% (130W). While this is around 1/2 of the stated stats on the box, it is much more than i need for my 180 gallon tank. I can add a T-manifold for a refugium, and frag tank and still hit 7X turnover on my DT.

My plumbing plan is a 5 foot vertical- 15 foot horizontal at a 1/4" per foot pitch- 7 feet vertical. 2 x 90 degree elbows and about 5 feet of flex sch40 in that run. I used a head pressure calculator to calculate the head and it came out at 18.2 feet.

im pretty happy about it. Although it is about 1/2 of the rating, for $129 its a great deal. plus it runs internal so i dont have to drill holes.

 

[OriginalUserName]

8-10 turns is a lot of loss, plus then running it through a manifold to multiple tanks and equipment. That's a lot of pressure.

 

[User]

8-10 turns is a lot of loss, plus then running it through a manifold to multiple tanks and equipment. That's a lot of pressure.

I’d take pressure off the pump (heehee [emoji51]) by using a smaller second pump to run the manifold and feed the equipment etc.