Plumbing closed loop

[Canadian]

I'm in the process of setting up my custom 24x24x18 cube tank (have the tank and skimmer). The tank will have a false wall hiding the skimmer, heater, etc. as well as the return pump and a closed loop pump. The display will be ~ 24x18x18 and I was planning on using a MJ1200 as the return pump to match the flow of the skimmer (Tunze 9002) and running a closed loop pump at around 1000 gph.

I would like to plumb the MJ return and closed loop return into the false wall without using any flares or nozzles on the output side in the display in an attempt to reduce velocity but maintain flow with a wide distribution. The outputs would be evenly spaced along the top length of the false wall near the water surface directing flow toward the front pane of glass. Would this kind of arrangement be at all problematic? Would the flow be appropriate for SPS? Obviously, one concern is that snails may try to climb into the exposed outputs of the bulkheads.

[Canadian]

Anyone?

[flyyyguy]

I think you could double that flow rate for your closed loop, especially if you are going to be plumbing it so you get a wide distrubution by using larger pipe outlets instead of a finer stream.

I see no problems, althugh im not sure i quite follow how your closed loop outlets are going to be. Are the coming through the false wall, or simply over the top?? What size piping do you plan on the outlets being?? TWhat size for the cls inlet(s)?? What cls pump exactly are we talking about here??

As far as keeping critters out of the cls intake bulkhead...use one of these and either use a 1.5" bulkihead,which it will thread into, or mod it to fit whateber bulkhead you will be using, although if you do double the flow by using a bigger pump like i say, a 1.5" bulkhead port for the inlet is a good size anyway.


http://www.spacare.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=3796

these are the best inlet cover I know of. they distribute the pressure well so critters dfont get stuck against their will, and are very low profile./ Only stick out 1/2"

[Canadian]

Thanks for the reply. I've added some quick and dirty Sketchup schematics to show what I plan to do a little better.

The false wall is 18" tall and 24" wide with the overflow cutout on the right 4" wide and 1" deep.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/147front_wall_view.jpg

In the front view the bulkhead on the left would be the MJ1200 return pump and the two on the right would be Y'd from a QuietOne 4000. All bulkheads, including the intake, would be plumbed as 1". The intake bulkhead is shown at the bottom of the false wall and would have an intake strainer basket it on it. However, the outputs at the top would be left as is - with no fittings in them to direct flow. Keep in mind that from the false wall to the front of the tank it is 18" so I'm counting on the two QuietOne returns deflecting off the front glass and back toward the rockwork and corals.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/147back_of_wall.jpg

In this view from behind, the pump on the right would be the MJ1200 return pump. The QuietOne outlet would be Y'd to the two bulkheads (the two tube-like things in the picture are just there to show that both bulkheads would be fed from the QuietOne). Additionally, the plumbing would be done with hose barbs and flexible braided nylon tubing to minimize head loss from 90s.

[flyyyguy]

I still dont think that is nearly enough pump for the cls on a sps tank.

You will be much ahppier if you either make some directional outlets out of 45's, or better yet get some omniflex nozzles from Oceans motions. They arent cheap though, but it is nice to be able to turn them any direction you want and they only stick out 1.5". this is especially true if you are goingto be using a sandbed. Cramming flow into the walls is one thing if A. you have enough flow to do it and still get throughout the tank, and B. You accomplish A and dont have to worry about sand. Otherwise you really need to rethink the straight flow into the wall thing

JMO :)

[Canadian]

Thanks Flyyyguy.

What kind of flow rate do you think I should be shooting for on a 33g tank (the actual display size with room taken up by the false wall)?

Obviously turnover rate is a really crude measure but if I ran a QuietOne 4000 High Head pump and MJ1200 without any head loss I would be looking at ~ 1250 GPH --> a turnover rate of ~ 38X. With the small amount of head loss in the tank due to not having a sump and the CL pump sitting in the tank I would have around 1060 GPH --> a turnover rate of ~ 33X. Doubling the the flow rate would give me somewhere around 66-76X turnover rate in a 24x18x18 display.

The other issue is that finding a submersible pump that runs in excess of 2000 GPH limits me to basically a MAG 2400 which pulls a ridiculous 265W. With a pump like that running 24x7 in a 33g tank a chiller would have to run 24x7 just to compensate.

[flyyyguy]

"doubling" may be a poor choice of words., as you are correct, 60x + is totally not necessary...........but 40-60 will make you much happier IMO, especially if you can control the direction of it. Is it possible to throw a sequence dart under the stand, and plumb that to your cls?? It will save a ton on electricity and noise over a mag 24 that would give you more flow options. Keep in mind that you simp;ly will put a ball valve on thepumps output so you can taper the flow back accordingly.