Drain Manifold?

[Entomophage]

Ahoy!

I'm planning my plumbing for a new build, and trying to devise the most efficient method to create independent and variable flow between the equipment and refugium sections of my sump. It seems that the options are to either drain the tank to a single section of the sump and manage flow internally with baffle heights or to run multiple drain lines from the tank to different sections of the sump.

The plan is to use a herbie style overflow, so I'm going to have a main drain line that handles 100% of the flow with a backup overflow that shouldn't have any water running through it under normal circumstances. Would it be possible to put a manifold on the primary drain line to divert flow between sections of the sump? I'm guessing the reason I can't find any examples of this online are that it becomes a pain when tuning the rate of flow. Would putting a gate valve upstream from the manifold help at all? Anyone have experience with this or any other method for achieving the variable flow rate I'm looking for in the sump?

Thanks!

 

[dbl]

Although not a manifold per se, it is exactly how I did my drain to feed my fuge. I simply put a T on the main drain to feed the fuge using a ball valve. The balance goes into the drain section of the sump along with the pipe from the backup drain.

Not about to say it's the correct way to do it, but it's been working for almost six years without issue for my system. I wanted the fuge fed from the tank before going through any other mechanical filtration.

 

[jerrod]

How many drains do you have? I have two lines and have one routed directly to the refugium and the other going to the protein skimmer. If you only have one you could use a T and gate valves to help manipulate how much water flows to each but you will most likely decrease the flow rate a little because of the extra junctions.

 

[JoshH]

I did it with my Fuge as well, easy to do, takes a little while to tune everything but works awesome when it's all done. I wouldn't do more than one outlet off the drain, adding more could make tuning the drains a REAL nightmare.

 

[dbl]

You can check out my build thread, but here is a quick picture with some descriptions. Two drains (main and backup). I agree with Josh to limit outlets from drains.

 

[Entomophage]

I'm only going to have a single main drain line @jerrod. Thanks @dbl, I'll take a look at your setup!

 

[dbl]

I'm only going to have a single main drain line @jerrod. Thanks @dbl, I'll take a look at your setup!

By the way, the "manifold" you see in my picture above is fed from the return pump, not the drain. Just wanted to make sure that was clear.

 

[Entomophage]

Splitting a single main drain line into two seems like it would still be reasonably easy to tune.

Aiming for approx. an 80/20 split, and I'm thinking that the output which requires less flow (fuge) should be at the end of the line since it'll be more restricted, creating some back pressure and allowing me to control it more precisely. If the end of the line is wide open, I'm guessing it would be harder to control how much water goes to the fuge if it's being feed upstream.

Any fault with the logic, or issues I may not be anticipating?