Return Manifold Plumbing

[Hurdbird88]

Conversion fittings from metric to standard should be arriving today and I’ve been working on a manifold design to replace the Waterbox return plumbing. Few questions:

1. I see gate valves to regulate flow on most manifolds which goes against everything I know of water flow principles (mechanical contractor for a living). Should I go with gate valves or true union ball valves on the manifold? I was planning to run them full 3/4” and reduce to 1/2” after the valve.

2. I see an awful lot of “bullhead tees” in aquarium return piping which also goes against water flow principles but seems to be widely used in reef tanks all over. Thoughts?

3. See the manifold options below. Let me know what you guys think would be the best options. (1) feed will be serving a remote refugium and then (2-3) others for various reactors.

 

[TheEngineer]

Unions are certainly your friend when it comes to hard plumbing :)

Gate valves give you more precise control, so for applications like skimmers they make more sense. If you're just trying to control a reactor you can probably get away with a ball valve.