Manifold, Herbie vs second pump

[boisblancboy]

I may be over thinking this but thought I’d ask first while still in the planning stages.

I plan on having a Herbie drain on a 120g tank. Now if I have a manifold “tee’d” off of my return line to run a reactor or 2, wouldn’t anytime my reactors start to clog or any flow change cause me to adjust the Herbie drain valve?

Seems like it may be a better option to use a small pump to run the reactors that way the return pump flow is more consistent?

Though I would like the manifold as I wouldn’t need an extra pump, cords, etc.

 

[JoshH]

Any time something like that happens your second (emergency) drain line in the herbie will pick up the slack so to speak until you get things balanced again. No need to fiddle with the valve unless you say add something to your manifold and change the flow in that regard. I run a separate pump for my manifold but not everyone does, reason is I use that pump to drain my sump for W/Cs when I can't be running the return.

 

[TheEngineer]

Any time something like that happens your second (emergency) drain line in the herbie will pick up the slack so to speak until you get things balanced again. No need to fiddle with the valve unless you say add something to your manifold and change the flow in that regard. I run a separate pump for my manifold but not everyone does, reason is I use that pump to drain my sump for W/Cs when I can't be running the return.

+1

The change should be subtle and if something big goes wrong you’ll hear the backup drain and know to look.

 

[boisblancboy]

Because water is going to flow in the path of least resistance should I plan on a valve after the “t” for the manifold to make sure I get the required flow?

 

[TheEngineer]

You probably want control for each offshoot of the manifold.