Plumbing help

[Wynie]

Hi
Im having a 8ft x 2ft x 2ft 250 gal tank built.
Im going to use a herbie overflow (1 1/4in) with dual return (1in). The returns wont be combined.

I have the following equipment that needs to be fed from the returns:
In-line heater
55w uv
4way manifold (refugium, 2 x reactors and chiller) (the chiller is for future, but need to have the plumbing available)

My question is: Would it be best to put the heater and uv on one line and the manifold on the other line, or should I put all equipment on one line and take the other line straight to the tank?

 

[UncommonSense]

Hi
Im having a 8ft x 2ft x 2ft 250 gal tank built.
Im going to use a herbie overflow (1 1/4in) with dual return (1in). The returns wont be combined.

I have the following equipment that needs to be fed from the returns:
In-line heater
55w uv
4way manifold (refugium, 2 x reactors and chiller) (the chiller is for future, but need to have the plumbing available)

My question is: Would it be best to put the heater and uv on one line and the manifold on the other line, or should I put all equipment on one line and take the other line straight to the tank?

I’d split it up, possibly with your chiller fed off your heater/UV side return so both returns can still output a decent volume of water back to the display!

(I assume you’re running dual pumps for redundancy, if the return pump doing 70-90% of the return flow fails, you’re taking away from that redundancy! — hence splitting demand between both returns lines! [on that note, I presume you have some means of turning off the heater and UV if no flow through that return line is detected?])

 

[Wynie]

Hi
Im having a 8ft x 2ft x 2ft 250 gal tank built.
Im going to use a herbie overflow (1 1/4in) with dual return (1in). The returns wont be combined.

I have the following equipment that needs to be fed from the returns:
In-line heater
55w uv
4way manifold (refugium, 2 x reactors and chiller) (the chiller is for future, but need to have the plumbing available)

My question is: Would it be best to put the heater and uv on one line and the manifold on the other line, or should I put all equipment on one line and take the other line straight to the tank?

I’d split it up, possibly with your chiller fed off your heater/UV side return so both returns can still output a decent volume of water back to the display!

(I assume you’re running dual pumps for redundancy, if the return pump doing 70-90% of the return flow fails, you’re taking away from that redundancy! — hence splitting demand between both returns lines! [on that note, I presume you have some means of turning off the heater and UV if no flow through that return line is detected?])

Yes im going to run two dc return pumps.
Never really thought about what would happen if flow stops.
I will have non return valves at the start of each return line.
The heater should turn off automatically, but the uv would be the only problem. It will stay filled with water, but might get warm.

 

[UncommonSense]

Unfortunately, non-return valves (check valves) have a bad tendency to fail open in a reef tank environment…

That is to say, the water flowing through these valves is far from sterile, so the sealing surfaces inside them will inevitably accumulate biofilm and encrusting organisms… this layer of “debris” on the sealing surfaces will allow water to seep backwards (or return) through the non-return valve during a pump shutdown! (Monthly maintenance can help to prevent this, but they are typically notoriously unreliable in the aquarium hobby!)

For your UV, having the housing mount at a low point in the return plumbing can help to keep it relatively full of water in the event of a return pump shutdown!

 

[Decamicron Labs Verified Sponsor]

Personally, I would plumb it so that everything that goes back to your DT passes through your UV sterilizer for biological reasons. However, I admit I don't know enough about the practicalities of return lines to comment on some of your other concerns.

 

[mcarroll]

Hi
Im having a 8ft x 2ft x 2ft 250 gal tank built.
Im going to use a herbie overflow (1 1/4in) with dual return (1in). The returns wont be combined.

I have the following equipment that needs to be fed from the returns:
In-line heater
55w uv
4way manifold (refugium, 2 x reactors and chiller) (the chiller is for future, but need to have the plumbing available)

My question is: Would it be best to put the heater and uv on one line and the manifold on the other line, or should I put all equipment on one line and take the other line straight to the tank?

Are you planning for the inline heater to be the only heater for the system? I.e. the system will have no heat when that line is down?

In general I like to have a correctly sized heater for the sump (usually smaller) in the sump and a correctly sized heater for the display (usually bigger) in the display. In-line heating is much less used so be sure you're fully considered the pro's and con's....folks here just aren't generally familar. IMO it's not quite as good of a setup. Definitely don't skimp on the quality of that heater if you go that route. There are other alternative ways to do heating that I would start with if I was gong to experiment.....a dedicated heating loop with a small external point-of-use water heater, for example. Worth thinking about the options at least if you're decided on "going off the ranch".

A single, larger high quality return pump will be more efficient and have a lower failure rate than multiple smaller pumps, BTW, and you can still keep a backup pump on hand. (More devices, more complexity = more failure points. An AC pump is still my choice for a return pump because they are simpler and have fewer points of failure.) A single pump will allow for more flow in the main return line to power that manifold, et al., plus still allow you to split the return (or not) however you like.

Just some thoughts. :)