Newbie Plumbing Question

[UrbanYeti50]

After lurking on this site for almost 2 years & binging everything on Youtube I can find, I finally had the funds to do my "if I'm going to do it, I'm going to go big from the start" build. I've ordered everything and started assembly! Time to create an account and start contributing and asking the questions that I haven't found the exact answers to. First off, thanks to everyone who posts/responds regularly. There are sooooo many build threads that helped formulate ideas in my head. Most of my questions (so far) are about the non-reefing topics. I'm a complete zero on construction & plumbing.

I am planning out my plumbing. My tank is a RSR 625 XXL, so only one return line. However, I'd like to plumb in a UV to the return line (if possible). Ideally, I would like to run two pumps with check valves for redundancy, but I've read so many conflicting things if that will work or not. So, I've attached a photo of a crude drawing of an idea in my head to utilize one pump & having a spare on hand. My question is, will this have any shot at working? Will I run into issues with trying to input water from the UV dialed into low-flow for bacteria into the main return line off of the manifold? Would I be better off running the two return pumps, one to the manifold & one to the UV, and combining them at the 1" return line? The return pump will be a COR-20 with a flow sensor on the inlet of the UV. Thanks for any advice that anyone could offer up & I look forward to now being a non-lurker on R2R!

 

[The Farmer]

Welcome to R2R!
i understand what your trying to accomplish here, you would have to add a gate valve to your plumbing that is going direct to your tanks return in order to have the proper flow going to your uv. The reason is that water will take the route to least resistance. You also don’t need the check valve after the uv

 

[UrbanYeti50]

Welcome to R2R!
i understand what your trying to accomplish here, you would have to add a gate valve to your plumbing that is going direct to your tanks return in order to have the proper flow going to your uv. The reason is that water will take the route to least resistance. You also don’t need the check valve after the uv

Thanks for the reply!

When you say "direct to the tanks return," are you meaning after the UV & manifold? How would that control flow specific to the UV? Wouldn't I be better off to have a gate valve off of the manifold connection to the UV for that purpose? That's what my plan was, I just don't have the artistic ability to represent that on my stick drawing.

 

[The Farmer]

Yes direct as in after the manifold and uv input

 

[UrbanYeti50]

Wouldn't my tank turnover rate be limited to the UV flow rate at that point? My end goal was to have something with the optionality to reduce flow through the UV for any bacteria problems, which is ~200 gph per the UV specs, while still maintaining the desired turnover to the display. Again, I'm completely ignorant on plumbing so I don't know if that's doable with a single return. This would all be so much easier if RS had two return lines lol. Thanks again!

 

[The Farmer]

You would use 2 gate valves in that scenario

 

[The Farmer]

U would set ur uv to receive the 200 gph and the rest to ur return

 

[UrbanYeti50]

Sorry, it's still not clicking in my head.

If I'm controlling the flow to the UV off of the manifold with a gate valve, what is the valve direct on the return line adding? How would potentially restricting the flow of the whole return create a path of least resistance for the water coming out of the UV?

 

[The Farmer]

The valve going to the tank is going to add the restriction that u need to allow water to flow to the uv as you need it. Also the valve going to the return shouldn’t be installed after the uv output and the return on the tank. It should be installed between the input and out of the uv on the main return line going to the tank

 

[UrbanYeti50]

It should be installed between the input and out of the uv on the main return line going to the tank

Aha! There's where my wires were crossed! This makes more sense. Thanks for the feedback and the patience!

 

[The Farmer]

No problem hope it works out for u

 

[homer1475]

Basically, you want to run your manifold, and UV in a loop, with a T so there is always flow going to the tank.

Heres a crude drawing for you if it makes more sense.

I might add 2 additional ball valves(that would be left wide open) right before the manifold, and after the manifold and UV to isolate that section in case you need to remove it for some reason.