Help needed

[andreasch]

Dear sirs,

i need to buy a new return pump and i need some advice on flow rate please. My overflow has dimensions of 25 x 15 x 30 cm (30cm is the height), with a single drain hole with a 32mm pipe tanking water down to the sump.

I am thinking how strong return pump i can buy, and i wanted to know if there is a way to find out what is the maximum flow rate that my overflow can take. If i take a return pump which is doing 5000 liters per hour (1320.86 gallons/hour) , my overflow will handle this or ill end up with a mess in the house?

 

[theMeat]

How many gallons is your tank?

How height is top of tank from bottom of sump?

What skimmer do you have?

 

[ReefEco]

Hey andreasch, there are some PVC drain pipe diameter calculators out there that you can Google, looks like 32mm pipe (1.25") can handle ~900gph drain. But the pump you mention might work just fine, after all the head height and plumbing restrictions, which will decrease the pump's max flow (as theMeat's questions suggest). However, beyond that, you mention that there is only a single pipe in your drain design - it is highly advisable to have at least two drains for redundancy, three is better (research Bean Animal overflow). If you only have a single drain pipe, over a long enough time it will likely get clogged, and with no redundancy the water will end up all over your floor...

 

[ReefEco]

Seen other pipe calculators rating 1.25" drain even higher, up to ~1500 gph...

 

[lou dog420]

Just get a bigger pump than you think you need, install a valve on the discharge, and throttle the valve to tune it.

 

[Fudsey]

Or get a DC pump that you can control the flow rate

 

[lou dog420]

Or just get a pump that's 10x your system volume.

 

[andreasch]

Thank you guys

@theMeat about what you asked me:
My tank volume is 600 liters (158.503 gallons)
The top of the tank is around 1,50 meter from the ground. Skimmer i dont have yet cos i am now in the process of going to reef tanks (am planning to get a TUNZE DOC Skimmer 9410)

@ReefEco unfortunately i cannot make any changes in my overflow to add extra pipes. i know a single pipe is not a good idea, but unfortunately i cannot fix this the way my tank is build in the wall.

@lou dog420 instead of installing a valve on the discharge, and throttle the valve to tune it, is also ok if i get a return pump that can control the flow by itself right? for example to get a 6000 l/h return pump and use it at 70% of its flow lets say (like the jebao dcp 6500 pump)

 

[theMeat]

Thank you guys

@theMeat about what you asked me:
My tank volume is 600 liters (158.503 gallons)
The top of the tank is around 1,50 meter from the ground. Skimmer i dont have yet cos i am now in the process of going to reef tanks (am planning to get a TUNZE DOC Skimmer 9410) )

For return pump
Recommend going 3-6 times display tank volume per hour.

The Tunze 9410 processes about 900 to 1,000 liters per hour. So good to go toward the lower end of recommend 3-6 times gph on return pump, so what skimmer can process, and what return pump is doing matches.

Since that's the case a pump like eheim 1262 would work perfect and be a great cool running reliable choice.

Would also be well within what your drain pipe can handle. Especially good for noise on a single drain design were air and water must go down same pipe, to try to keep the flow below max capacity. The less water, more room for air in the pipe, the quieter it will be. And that 3-6 x gph on display has nothing to do with noise, simply what I'd recommend

Fwiw have Jebaos running on many tanks and find them well made too. Better to get a pump that's sized right, or dc controllable, instead of adding the extra heat and restricting flow with a valve. That's bad for pump, and bad for tank