do flow accelerators work?

[Dangerwill]

I am building my return for my closed loop and I will have a 3600 gph reeflo dart pushing though four 3/4 inch outlets that I am connecting to flow accelerators.

ignoring head and friction loss I would in theory be getting about 900 gph per outlet before the eductor.

What kind of flow should I be expecting with the eductor in the equation?

Additionally I am thinking about running an iwaki 70 or a mag 12 as my return from sump with another 2 accelerators maybe even a sqwd. Is this a good idea?

Merry Christmas

[jayinh]

good question, i was thinking about getting one but have no experience with them. tagging along

[madean]

First of all how big of a tank are you talking about? Secondly when I was looking into them I found that there is a sweet spot for them to work as advertised. You need enough flow to get them to work correctly. I don't remember off the top of my head what it was, but do a search and look for that info or email the manufactures about this. I think there has been a shift from these to other power heads because of what certain power heads offer. With educators and penductors, the flow is laminar and constant. alot of people are wanting control of the flow and it to be broadcasted in a larger direction rather then a straight stream in one direction. But look for that info. They work, you just need to find that sweet spot. Its basically a venture system.

[Dangerwill]

its a 6 foot long 150 gallon tank.

My goal with this tank and the eductors is to not have powerheads.

[N_prise]

I'm pretty sure if u use them, u have to have them balanced so if u have 4 returns u need them on all four not just 2 or 3

[jimmyj7090]

They work but you need a pump that does well with a lot of back pressure. Probably the main reason they are getting less popular is because you need a power hungry pump to drive them which kind of defeats the purpose if you're going for effiency.

[MHG]

They work very well. But they will not work on a standard return with an anti siphon hole. Mahes the water squirt out that hole like a blow hole.... On a closed loop they are perfect......

[Greg 45]

I run them on all my tanks.
They are all tunable with lock line valves
Also they now are made to fit lock line so they are adjustable in the water
I used them in place of power heads on my anemone tanks

[Dangerwill]

I will have mine running on all 4 outs that are connected to my closed loop and being pushed by a reeflo dart

I Han also planned on hooking them up to my sump return which will probably be powered by a mag 12 or an iwaki 70

[jimmyj7090]

Don't run a penductor on a mag 12, they just don't have the pressure - so much that you'll probably get less flow with the penductor than without.

The iwaki on the other hand will work well if it's the circulation model, and it will work great if it's the pressure model.

No first hand exp with the dart here, but IIRC they are really not a pressure pump so may not perform very well with penductors either.

Keep in mind, the penductor works by forcing the flow through a restricted hole, so if the pump can't power through that hole the penductor will choke the pump more than anything else..

[OregonReefer2]

Don't run a sqwd on your return if you plan on having reactors plumbed into it. The fluctuating pressures will make it impossible to tune your reactors.

[Dmorty217]

If you don't have a pressure rated pump the accelerators won't do a thing. You will need a high pressure rated pump for them to have any effect at all. Mag drives won't work and neither will the reeflo dart. You would need something in the 5000gph range with a max head pressure of 60+ft or more if you want the accelerators to have any effect

[psteeleb]

On my 300g I had 4 flow accelerators on a Reeflow Baracuda and 2 Penductors on a Little Giant 4-MDQ-SC, all 6 worked fantastic. You do have to keep equal flow to multiple eductors run off one pump ("flow accelerator" and "penductor" are brand names for aquarium eductors), and they do require pressure to operate properly.

Currently I have a 110g tank with 2 of the flow accelerators that are run on a Mag 12 that also feeds a reactor manifold (Ca, GFO, Nitrate sponge & GAC). The reactors don't use much flow so don't let that be much of a concern unless you plan differently.

My return has an anti siphon and it does act like a blow hole, so there is loss, but I still get great flow with the accelerators, way more then if I ran without them.

[Dangerwill]

I am very much excited to see this thing in action. I'm going to use the iwaki rather than the mag and am not concerned much about the reeflo being underpowered as it is a baldor motor sporting 3600 gph beast!

Thank you guys for your feedback