1.5" drains to reefmat

[reely989]

Hey guys, my new tank has 1.5" bulkheads drilled for the overflow and I'm going to use a Reefmat 1200. I'm going to run two drains into it, but I believe those hose adapters go to 1" instead of 1.5". Is my best bet just a simple reducing coupling? Anything I should be concerned about doing this? I'll have two drains going and one emergency drain.

 

[C_AWOL]

You can use 1" unions on both sides of the reefmat and feed it from both sides via a Tee from your 1.5" drain.

Keep in mind that really high flow rates may cause the rolls to prematurely exhaust (so will sitting in water thats too deep + utilizing the media basket). I ended up using 4 drains in my more recent 470 build to accomodate the use of high turn over + 2 rollers (to reduce premature exhaustion due to too much flow)

An example of using a union to connect pvc to the reefmat. Can be repeated in whatever way you want on the opposite side.

 

[reely989]

You can use 1" unions on both sides of the reefmat and feed it from both sides via a Tee from your 1.5" drain.

Keep in mind that really high flow rates may cause the rolls to prematurely exhaust (so will sitting in water thats too deep + utilizing the media basket). I ended up using 4 drains in my more recent 470 build to accomodate the use of high turn over + 2 rollers (to reduce premature exhaustion due to too much flow)

An example of using a union to connect pvc to the reefmat. Can be repeated in whatever way you want on the opposite side.

I gotcha. So my plan was to have 3 1.5" drains, 2 of them to be active and one as a backup. Would there be any harm in reducing each 1.5" down to a 1" and feeding both sides that way?

 

[C_AWOL]

By having 2 active, do you mean 1 primary and 1 secondary? (One handles most and other handles just a bit) or both will be handling full loads? (Seems unlikely due to how much a 1.5" can handle at full siphon)

There should be no issues assuming you're running the primary+secondary+emergency style and theyre reduced at the tee end before feeding into the reefmat besides possibly exceeding ~2000-2500gph of flow for the reefmat (as mentioned before, overly high flow will cause premature roll exhaustion)

The secondary doesn't have to go through the reefmat since its a minimal amount of unfiltered water usually just for noise purposes.

If both 1.5" are handling full loads(full siphon or dual open drains) then it will not be possible for a single reefmat to handle 2 1.5" drains feeding into it in any way due to flow and/or a lot of air bubbles(open drains only) causing the sensor to trigger more often than necessary.

 

[reely989]

By having 2 active, do you mean 1 primary and 1 secondary? (One handles most and other handles just a bit) or both will be handling full loads? (Seems unlikely due to how much a 1.5" can handle at full siphon)

There should be no issues assuming you're running the primary+secondary+emergency style and theyre reduced at the tee end before feeding into the reefmat besides possibly exceeding ~2000-2500gph of flow for the reefmat (as mentioned before, overly high flow will cause premature roll exhaustion)

The secondary doesn't have to go through the reefmat since its a minimal amount of unfiltered water usually just for noise purposes.

If both 1.5" are handling full loads(full siphon or dual open drains) then it will not be possible for a single reefmat to handle 2 1.5" drains feeding into it in any way due to flow and/or a lot of air bubbles(open drains only) causing the sensor to trigger more often than necessary.

I was going to use the plumbing kit that Planet sends with their tank which I believe has two shorter drains at the same height and one cut longer as an emergency.

 

[C_AWOL]

I'm not familiar with theirs but it's very likely that one of the two shorter drains will have a gate valve (making it create a siphon) and the other short one will only up take a small quantity of water when the siphon is running.

 

[reely989]

I'm not familiar with theirs but it's very likely that one of the two shorter drains will have a gate valve (making it create a siphon) and the other short one will only up take a small quantity of water when the siphon is running.

Makes sense, thanks for all your help!