how to plumb duel overflow

[Humuhumunuku]

I posted this in all things salty yesterday, and there has been no response yet, so I thought I would try here. I just got a 135 "reef ready" oceanic aquarium with duel overflow. I will be useing a megaflow wet dry filter/sump. There are a number of ways to plumb this, and im not sure which is best. Should i run a single pump and branch it to the 2 overflows, rune a single pump and only use one of the returns, or use 2 pumps going to seperate returns. Also, should the chiller be hooked up in line with one of the returns, or on a seperate pump?

[rustybucket145]

The safest way to do this is to have two pumps (one to each return) on seperate circuits. This way if you ever have a breaker trip you will still have one pump pumping. As for the chiller, I will leave that for someone else to answer. (I don't have a chiller)

[Humuhumunuku]

Excellent idea, we where already planning on running a new circuit for the aquarium, only running a couple of thinks on the existing circuit.

[Humuhumunuku]

anyone have ideas about chiller?

[h20cooled]

I would run the chiller inline, the easist way to do it would be to have the water run from one of the overflows into the chiller and then to the sump. That way it is gravity fed and doesn't slow your pump down. But you will need to look at the volume of water that your chiller is meant to have running through it. I know with my PCI chiller it is supposed to be between 300 and 600 gph so I will have to T my overflow pipe off and use a ball valve to slow the flow through it.

Does that make since?

Rich

[Humuhumunuku]

thanks for the help, makes perfect sence, ill have to check out the gph of the pump and recomended gph of the chiller. The gravity fed idea sounds good, but if i decide to run 2 pumps i may not have to worry about it slowing down too much.

[h20cooled]

Personally I would not want to run two return pumps, it just add to the amount of cleaning you have to do. Plus its just another place for a leak and they take up room...

In my 120G tank that I'm planning I going for 1 good external return pump. The tank will have 2 overflow and 2 returns also but I plan on using them for other items like gravity feed for skimmer and chiller. I'm not going to do a closed loop for circulation I will be using 2 Tunze 6100 pumps and a mulit controller.

Rich

[Humuhumunuku]

so you gravity feed your chiller, and then use the pump for return?

[raddogz]

What kind of lights will you be running on this tank?

Fwiw, I live in San Francisco and I run two t-5's, and a single 250w mh, a mag 9.5 return pump, and a large skimmer pump. The temperature never gets above 80 (granted my tank is in my garage room). The warmest it ever gets is 82, and at 83 the controller is programmed to turn off the metal halide.

[Humuhumunuku]

Well its most likely that ill be running mh. I want the temperature to stay lower than that, and not fluctuate more than one or two degrees.

[h20cooled]

Yeah the over flow would run down into a T fitting, then a ball valve on both side of the T. Then one part would go to the skimmer and the other would go to the chiller both would then go into the sump and back up through the return pump. Then the other overflow would just run directly to the sump and back up with the one return pump. I think this is the best way to do it, but I have not tested it yet.

Rich

[Humuhumunuku]

how is your current one set up

[h20cooled]

Overflow into sump/fuge/pump/chiller/tank return. The skimmer is supplied by a small pump. That is part of what I want to eliminate, I'm tired of having so many pumps to clean...

[Humuhumunuku]

with the set up you suggested (although skimmer will have one anyway) is another pump needed, or just the return?

[h20cooled]

Nope, just the return pump...

[Humuhumunuku]

thanks for all the help...off to bed for today

[funloven]

It has been quite awhile since anyone posted on this thread so maybe all of the questions are answered, but I will add my two cents just in case since I have some experience with wet/dry filtration.

I also have a 125 gal. tank w/ 2 overflows. My sump is in the basement and what we have done is connect the two overflows into 1 line just under the tank so only 1 line would have to run through the floor (didn't want any more holes in my flooring than was absolutely necessary.

Once through the floor we are going to run the 1 return line through my wet/dry. This will hopefully act as a filter and also provide the same benefit as baffles or a bucket do to eleminate microbubbles. We are currently using the bucket method because my LF is still curring so I can't move the things from my old tank yet (where the wet/dry currently is) until my cycling is complete.

Many reefers are against the wet/dry filter approach because it apparently runs the risk of Nitrite build-up but I have been using it for 1 1/2 yrs now without any problem in my 65 gal tank. With the 125 gal upgrade I am also going to be using a skimmer.

[Humuhumunuku]

Thanks for the intrest, nothing is carved in stone yet, so its never to late for some more input. One small question though, what is theh bucket method?

[funloven]

The bucket is currently setting in my sump. My husband put large slits in the side of the bucket because the top is out of the water. The overflow hose empties into the bucket and the water flows out of the slits. It reduces the amount of water turbulance caused by the large amt of water return into the sump and thus greatly reduces the microbubbles. For some reason not everyone gets these microbubbles, but then there are those of us who are less furtunate. If you do end up with them here are some other suggestions that I just found besides the bucket idea: using LR around the outputs - the surface of the LR breaks up the bubbles, and another idea was adding filter socks to the line emptying into the sump. :rollface:

[Humuhumunuku]

ok thanks i understand what you are talking about now