Reactor question

[Bruce7267ad]

Do I have to have one powerhead per reactor?

 

[Ron Reefman]

I don't completely understand your question.

Do you mean to ask, "do you need one pump per reactor?"
If that's the question, the answer is no. Lots of reef systems use one big return pump and then make a 'manifold' so that pump can do a variety of jobs. It can feed the return to the DT, it can feed any reactor, it can feed a chiller and it can even be set up to pump water out of the system to help do water changes.

Here you can see the manifold I made to feed various things. So I only have one return pump. The pump is behind the skimmer and other things haven't been hooked u

 

[Bruce7267ad]

I don't completely understand your question.

Do you mean to ask, "do you need one pump per reactor?"
If that's the question, the answer is no. Lots of reef systems use one big return pump and then make a 'manifold' so that pump can do a variety of jobs. It can feed the return to the DT, it can feed any reactor, it can feed a chiller and it can even be set up to pump water out of the system to help do water changes.

Here you can see the manifold I made to feed various things. So I only have one return pump. The pump is behind the skimmer and other things haven't been hooked u

I'm pretty new to this so sorry if I don't make sense haha. What I'm trying to figure out is do I need separate power heads for each of my reactors

 

[sharpimage]

No you do not need different pumps for each reactor. You can have one pump supply many reactors. Powerheads refer to wavemakers that are in the tank. But, controlling flow to each reactor is more difficult. Example would be gfo and carbon should have different flow rates *typically*

 

[Ron Reefman]

Don't sweat feeling like a fish out of water. You'll get the hang of it in time.

To me a powerhead is a pump that is inside the display tank and moves water around as 'flow' inside the tank. Not used to move water to a reactor.

And just to be clear, by reactor you mean a piece of equipment that you add carbon or GFO or Phosban to and run water through it, right? You can use a separate small pump (not a powerhead) for each reactor if you want. Or you can get one bigger pump and run 2 or 3 reactors off that single pump and control the flow to each by adding valves (and just for reference, gate valves are more controllable than ball valves).

 

[ca1ore]

Semantics perhaps, but you certainly can use a standard power head located in the sump to push water through a reactor or even multiple reactors. Something like a sicce synchra for example would work fine though some folks do not call these 'power heads'. Clearly power heads designed for in tank flow will not work to push water through reactors.

 

[Bruce7267ad]

Semantics perhaps, but you certainly can use a standard power head located in the sump to push water through a reactor or even multiple reactors. Something like a sicce synchra for example would work fine though some folks do not call these 'power heads'. Clearly power heads designed for in tank flow will not work to push water through reactors.

Ok I get ya. Thanks. I've got one of those Cobalt powerheads from bulk reef supply that they recommend for their dual carbon and gfo reactor I'm not sure if 290 gallons per hour is enough to feed a third reactor.