Plumbing to Manifold

[Addicted2ACRO's]

What do you mean by "Plumbing Chiller Sump to Sump"?

 

[UncommonSense]

What do you mean by "Plumbing Chiller Sump to Sump"?

I seem to recall you saying that your chiller is plumbed to have water from it return to the display tank currently?

Once you upgrade your plumbing, the chiller acting as a third water return to the display will make you have trouble getting water drained back out of the display fast enough!

Because of this, you’ll likely end up plumbing your chiller to just return its water back to the sump! — not quite as efficient, but it will now be getting only ~1/3 of the total water flow from the manifold, so it will work quite well for temp control still!

 

[Addicted2ACRO's]

Ah ok...Yes, currently it does return to the sump...not the display tank

 

[UncommonSense]

Ah ok...Yes, currently it does return to the sump...not the display tank

Ah, so that can remain unchanged then!

 

[Addicted2ACRO's]

Yep!

 

[Addicted2ACRO's]

Good morning...as I'm taking an inventory of the components I will need for this rebuild, I just noticed that I had reduced my 1" returns to 3/4" . So I going to also have to replace the return bulkheads in my pre-filters. That's a pain-in-the-a**.

 

[UncommonSense]

Good morning...as I'm taking an inventory of the components I will need for this rebuild, I just noticed that I had reduced my 1" returns to 3/4" . So I going to also have to replace the return bulkheads in my pre-filters. That's a pain-in-the-a**.

Aaah, dang!

The bulkheads themselves are 3/4”?

Or are the bulkheads 1”, with 3/4” reducer bushings?

 

[Addicted2ACRO's]

1" with 3/4" reducers

 

[Addicted2ACRO's]

Would you recommend pvc hose or vinyl?

 

[UncommonSense]

1" with 3/4" reducers

Aah, that is fixable then! Still a pain in the butt…

Not all bulkheads call for the same glass hole size, so your best bet will be to measure the width of the threaded body on your current bulkheads to find replacements with similar/same threaded body diameter!

 

[UncommonSense]

Would you recommend pvc hose or vinyl?

For which parts of the plumbing?

I’m partial to braided vinyl, but it’s tough to work with!

I’ll often do a little 4”- 12” length of tubing/hose between the pump, and hard PVC plumbing; purely to serve as vibration dampening!

 

[Addicted2ACRO's]

Well for my application the pump sits in a dedicated compartment of the sump. I've been using black vinyl hose from the pump to a 90 degree barb fitting that screws into the bottom of a bulkhead that mounts on a dedicated hole at the top of the sump. The hose is held in place with plastic clamps. Has been working well for me. That's why I was contemplating using it for the returns from the manifold, but gluing pvc hose into fittings is probably better than clamps. Although I've never had a problem either way

 

[UncommonSense]

Well for my application the pump sits in a dedicated compartment of the sump. I've been using black vinyl hose from the pump to a 90 degree barb fitting that screws into the bottom of a bulkhead that mounts on a dedicated hole at the top of the sump. The hose is held in place with plastic clamps. Has been working well for me. That's why I was contemplating using it for the returns from the manifold, but gluing pvc hose into fittings is probably better than clamps. Although I've never had a problem either way

Hose clamps do work quite well, if correctly sized for the job!

I’m a fan of using NPT threaded bulkheads over slip/glued bulkheads, purely because you can remove them later if needed without cutting any pipe!

Flexible hose up to the return bulkheads will definitely work, just make sure you have a union on the manifold before you adapt to hose, so you can easily decouple/recouple the manifold from the return hoses for install, and service!

— using unions strategically means you can just replace half of the union later if you want to redo any plumbing on that side of the union! (Prevents the need to completely rebuild the manifold again!)

 

[UncommonSense]

the bottom of a bulkhead that mounts on a dedicated hole at the top of the sump.

Just caught this too: will you be able to increase this bulkhead to 1.5”?


otherwise, it will be a major point of restriction, and should probably be abandoned in the new plumbing laying!

 

[Addicted2ACRO's]

By using Vinyl flexible hose I can screw in barbed fittings on the ends of the manifold for the returns and at the returns coming from the bulkheads at the bottom of the pre-filters. A lot easier then gluing

 

[Addicted2ACRO's]

Yes...I believe I have room. I just need to increase the size of the hole that holds the 1" bulkhead currently

 

[UncommonSense]

By using Vinyl flexible hose I can screw in barbed fittings on the ends of the manifold for the returns and at the returns coming from the bulkheads at the bottom of the pre-filters. A lot easier then gluing

I like to get the plumbing pointed roughly in the right direction with 45 or 90 hard PVC elbows, then adapting to hose; making the lengths of hose look much tidier!

Yes...I believe I have room. I just need to increase the size of the hole that holds the 1" bulkhead currently

Perfect! Are you familiar with the double hole saw trick for accurately increasing hole sizes?

 

[Addicted2ACRO's]

Nope...fill me in

 

[UncommonSense]

Nope...fill me in

Here’s a thread I went over this topic in detail within! — it should give you some ideas!

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/closed-loop-questions.1122444/page-2#post-13769583

 

[Addicted2ACRO's]

Sounds good