Plumbing planning help

[Coral Keeper]

Hello, so I'm planning on re-doing my plumbing on my 120 gallon reef tank with 40 breeder sump/fuge and 60 gallon frag tank. My main goal is to make it as efficient as possible, ie, run everything I need off of this one return pump instead of having a ton of pumps everywhere.
The sketch I drew out.
Let me know if I'm missing anything or I could improve the design.

 

[Bruce60]

Not that I am a great expert....

It seems as if you may have too many branches off this one main line. I would be concerned about being able to properly balance the flow...tweak one valve and you impact flow throughout the system.

I would avoid reducing the diameter of the return unless and until you are forced to do so (for example, if your return bulkhead is for a 3/4" pipe reduce right before). Reducing the diameter of the pipe reduces flow and adds additional back pressure on the pump.

My current tank (150 gal display) has two 3/4" returns. I decided to try the Maxspect DC Duo pump instead of having two return pumps or splitting one return pump into two lines. This line of DC pumps allows you to add a second impeller (included) to the pump, basically running two returns off a single motor. I am using the 9K version (https://www.coralvue.com/maxspect-turbine-duo-9k), which is rated at 2500 gph when using both returns. In the first six months I have found it to work just fine. There are larger and smaller versions of the pump I purchased. This would allow you to have a single pump and run the returns to the display and frag tanks from one side, and feed the huge and reactors from the other.

There are others who will opine that having two return pumps can be better, in that if one pump fails you still have a second pump still running. Like you, I prefer the simplicity of a single pump. Oddly enough, for the same price as two return pumps, I can have a single return pump and a backup on the shelf at home in case of failure. Or, in the Amazon Prime world you can get another pump delivered (in most cases) in a day if you don't have a LFS that stocks the pump you want.

Good luck!

 

[Larry L]

a single return pump and a backup on the shelf at home in case of failure

Definitely this - make sure you have a backup available if you are going to try running all your systems off a single pump.

I forget who originally posted it but I saw a great setup with the backup pump already plumbed in, but dry and isolated from the system with ball valves (this was using external pumps). So in case of failure it's just a matter of switching the valves to isolate the failed pump and fire up the backup pump.

 

[RocketEngineer]

1) Get rid of the check valve. They fail because any little bit of growth or crud is enough to keep them from working. Avoid at all cost.

2) You want to stay 1" until you can't any more. This will maintain the most flow possible.

3) I would only have one branch off the main return line, which leads to a manifold that everything else leads off of. At the end of that would be the feed to the frag tank. This would ensure you don't have a dead end on the manifold while still allowing you to adjust the flow to the individual items as needed.

HTH

 

[George Lopez]

I agree with starting 1" as far as you can go on the main run so you don't fight extra head pressure (thus flow). I would also add a union on each side of the 3 tees to have it removable or replaceable for service, your one pump may not be strong enough to run everything so you may decide to just add a second pump down the line and run those off of the second pump. The check valve down there won't do anything for anything if your only running one pump so either get rid of it or put it after all your tees, personally i don't trust them at all (i used to work in industrial plumbing and they always failed). Finally add unions whenever you can, remember you may need to service or replace sections later as your tank evolves.

This was my initial plan but that skimmer took way more flow than i thought and have to run a second pump for it.

 

[motortrendz]

I'm upgrading my current under tank sump to the basement and built a new manifold. I used all 1inch fittings with 3/4" and 1/2" outlets with union valves so they can be removed to be cleaned or replaced if needed. By going larger in the manifold it ensures a higher volume of water to meet your needs without affecting pressure as much. Kind of like a buffer zone of sorts..

Heres a pic of mine. Itll be running my main display off the top 2 3/4 outlets and the others will be feeding my reactors, chiller, and frag tank