DIY plumbing question...

[egon808]

Just looking for a little help/suggestions. I'll be setting up my sump soon for my 40gal breeder. I am planning on running a recirculating protein skimmer as well as a media reactor and don't want to fill my sump with 3 pumps. Seen other peoples videos and read some things but had a question about running both of these (skimmer and reactor) off of my return pump. My plan is to use T fittings and gate or ball valves to tune flow to the skimmer and reactor. Any suggestions whether this is good or bad?

Thanks!

[Gorgok]

While a manifold off the return isn't all that bad, i'd rather have a separate accessory pump myself. You can put a manifold on it, feed all your extras with it, and not bother the return pump at all.

[egon808]

Thanks for the advice. I was kind of thinking the same thing. My train of thought was that there would be some water that doesn't even return to the tank as it gets cycled through the equipment and back to the sump.

[egon808]

got another question. Planning on buying a DC pump to control water flow from my return. Would people recommend that I get a bigger pump and run it at 1/4 to 1/2 power?

Yay or nay?

[billdogg]

I run my reactors off the return, but I would use a dedicated pump for the skimmer.

[egon808]

Thanks for the suggestion

[sleepydoc]

It's nice to have a bit of extra headroom with the pump, especially if you're planning on running reactors with it, but last I checked, the DC pumps were a bit less efficient at half power than at full power, so you get less flow per watt. It's not a huge difference, however. The bigger consideration would be whether it's worth spending the extra $$$ for capacity you don't need. At least with the DC pumps it's easy to dial them down as opposed to putting a valve to restrict flow like you have to do with AC pumps. They you're just wasting energy.

One limitation of running reactors off of the return - the pressure is limited by the head pressure of your return plumbing since the other end is actually open. If there's a lot of resistance to flow in your reactors you won't get much flow.