How much water can passively drain through a 1 inch bulkhead?

[MoshJosh]

Let’s pretend I don’t care about safety or redundancies at all, and I wanted to use a single 1 inch bulkhead as an “overflow “ How big of a return pump could such a bulkhead handle?

 

[o2manyfish]

It's going to depend on a couple of variables

Is the Bulkhead in the bottom or the back - In the back pulls more air means less water

Is it a straight drop from the bulkhead to the sump - Every Elbow and Bend is going to slow the water

How far is the drop? --- Gravity is your friend, the greater the force of gravity is at pulling the weight of the water down

Is the bulkhead going to be fully submerged? If the bulkhead is only underwater and not pulling any air then the water will move thru the pipe faster. And air that gets sucked down with the water going down the pipe is going to slow the flow down, because as the water is rushing down the air is trying to rise up and slows as well as blocks the flow of water. If you can remove all air from the pipe and the inlet then you will get a full siphon (100% water no air) and that's the fastest the water will flow.


Dave B

 

[theMeat]

600 gph maximum. Less with elbows or horizontal run

 

[MoshJosh]

Not submerged, 1 90 degree turn right off the bulkhead, the straight down. 310gph pump

 

[MoshJosh]

Not submerged, 1 90 degree turn right off the bulkhead, the straight down. 310gph pump

Bump?

 

[mistablik1]

I’m new here, but it sounds like I had a similar setup I tested a recently.

I recently used a dremel to enlarge a 1” bulkhead hole to 1.5.” The existing hole was pretty close to the top, so gravity was not my friend when trying to get a siphon started. Secondly, if you’re going to push enough water where you’ll need to benefit from a siphon, the siphon will run at a constant speed. I learned my tank would eventually overflow or loose the siphon. For me, the siphon would not restart quick enough to keep it from overflowing as well.

Not to mention it was extremely loud lol. I have a variable speed pump that I ran at about 300gph when doing the above. It was a straight drop into a bucket from the bulkhead.

I ended up just doing a herbie style overflow in another room after enlarging the hole.

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[fish farmer]

I have a glass holes 700 gph overflow on my tank, 1 inch ID drain line. I buy a pump rated around that and valve it back a little on the return if needed. As said before elbows and such will change that, both on the return and overflow.