Anything wrong with doing this DIY flow setup?

[UM Aquarium Club]

The tank(s) are long ~15" deep setups that are going to be used in a frag style setup with a standpipe at one end that is pvc and allows water to overflow over the top of it or be pulled out and drain the whole tank. Would this work as intended and be able to do a decent job of pushing water out either one or all sections of the pvc tubing? Currently the flow setup is basically two pumps in corners of the tank that just point in one direction. I want to optimize flow for the whole tank to make sure all of the frags get adequate flow.

 

[Mandelstam]

With all those outlets flow will be very low in each one.

 

[pluikens]

What are the actual dimensions of the tank? I agree with @Mandelstam. Based on the tank dimensions, I find the gyres work really well for frag thanks.

 

[Heliarc19]

It’s hard to say without the dimensions and flow of the pump, I would still guess this will not work very well.

 

[mfinn]

As mentioned, you will have difficulty getting decent flow in each of the outlets unless the pump was huge.
Seems like a pain, when you could just do a couple wide flow power heads.

 

[UM Aquarium Club]

This tank setup would likely be scaled across at least 8 tanks with dimensions of approximately 5' by 2' I don't have any pumps currently to use but will be ordering pumps to match the setup. Agreed with the flow so one fix could be to put another pump on the bottom left corner and split the pvc sections in half so the power would be distributed. I would also potentially put each of the two pumps on a timer to switch flow for the corals.

 

[Mandelstam]

You still have close to 20 outlets per pump. On a 1000gph pump that's only 50gph per outlet. Close to a trickle... If you want water movement and flow, power heads are way more efficient.

 

[UM Aquarium Club]

The number of holes could be modified but currently the setup is a couple pumps in the corners pushing water in one direction each which seems like it would miss most of the coral and not provide enough flow across all of the coral. As there are a large number of tanks involved we are trying to avoid a solution which would include several $200+ pumps per tank as it could potentially be thousands of dollars more.

 

[Jeepguy242]

You still have close to 20 outlets per pump. On a 1000gph pump that's only 50gph per outlet. Close to a trickle... If you want water movement and flow, power heads are way more efficient.

To add to that the flow would be greater by the pump so you couldn’t rely on the fact that it will be equal. Closest to the pump would be more than 50 per and farthest away would be considerably less unless you make the holes closest to the pump smaller and gradually increased in size

 

[UM Aquarium Club]

Definitely true, we could likely do fewer outputs (around 12 rather than 20) and do it with a 1000-1500 gph pump for either corner. This would probably give it several outputs of 200+ likely and then some of the side ones with <100 gph and also allow the end outputs to go up to 250 gph+ which could be decent output when spread. Does anyone have a recommendation for an option that would give a good amount of flow to the whole tanks that won't break the bank on 8+ tanks?

 

[mfinn]

I don't understand the valve. It's not going to improve the flow at the far end of the run .

 

[UM Aquarium Club]

The idea of the flow valve would be that you could close off the portion running the length of the tank and therefore increase the flow that is moving out of the 4 outputs at the end or the ~2 (maybe more) outputs on the other end.

 

[mfinn]

To get equal flow in each of the outlets, you would need a valve on each outlet.

 

[UM Aquarium Club]

We don't necessarily need equal flow on each outlet just good flow across the tank, something better than simply putting the pumps in the corners and having that be all of the flow distribution.

 

[mfinn]

We don't necessarily need equal flow on each outlet just good flow across the tank, something better than simply putting the pumps in the corners and having that be all of the flow distribution.

I did top spray bars ( submerged) on a couple tanks years ago and it works ok for short runs. But even with 800-1000 gph pumps the flow on the end of a 5' run was pretty weak.
I couldn't count on my flow down in the tank.
Those gyre's look pretty good flow really wide flow patterns.
I heard jeboa came out with a knockoff.
Not sure how those turned out.

 

[Mandelstam]

I did top spray bars ( submerged) on a couple tanks years ago and it works ok for short runs. But even with 800-1000 gph pumps the flow on the end of a 5' run was pretty weak.
I couldn't count on my flow down in the tank.
Those gyre's look pretty good flow really wide flow patterns.
I heard jeboa came out with a knockoff.
Not sure how those turned out.

Saw a review of them a while ago. I don't think I would have a problem getting one.

 

[drblakjak55]

I’ve been using two eight dollar Chinese pumps from Amazon on either end of a standard 90g tank after my jabao died after one year and the hydor tried to electrocute me. 800 gph each and a dc return pump from the sump blowing 900gph. Very happy with flow pattern

 

[UM Aquarium Club]

Problem is that frags will be fairly close to the pumps so in the corners the flow will not be nearly the same for all the plugs. We've also had problems in the past with frags being pushed over for taller corals like acropora in a setup like that one.