Manifold vs second pump
 

I may be over thinking this but thought I’d ask first while still in the planning stages.

I plan on having a Herbie drain on a 120g tank. Now if I have a manifold “tee’d” off of my return line to run a reactor or 2, wouldn’t anytime my reactors start to clog or any flow change cause me to adjust the Herbie drain valve?

Seems like it may be a better option to use a small pump to run the reactors that way the return pump flow is more consistent?

Though I would like the manifold as I wouldn’t need an extra pump, cords, etc.

kind of.

It's more of a keep an eye on it type thing. If the flow from the sump to the tank slows, the set water level in the overflow will start to drop. a little. you could go a long time before siphon starts to break randomly. and you would hear it.

but it's more likely maintenance will be done long before it's a problem.

HTH

I have an ATS and a reactor fed from separate pumps in my sump. What I do is pull from the drain section, and return to the pump section. This way even if the reactors/ATS change flow, flow through the sump does not change. Therefore your drain won't change either. If the pumps start to get clogged and pump less, more water just goes over my baffles.

^^^This^^^

I have used both methods. I decided to get rid of the manifold on my current 120DT because it was more trouble than it was worth IMO. I now run my reactors (when needed) on individual small pumps.

After more reading and your replies I think it would be easier to run the reactors on their own pump.

In the future if I have a large enough DT or need many reactors then I think a manifold would be ideal but still operated by its own/separate pump.

I set up my 40 breeder/20l with a Herbie style overflow and plumbed a manifold off the return. I feel confident I will change this setup in the future. You are correct in thinking that you will need to adjust the overflow gate valve anytime you make changes to the reactors. It's a pain honestly. When I make the time to re do it, I will run my return straight to the display, and run a second pump to my manifold to feed the reactors. I experimented a little and it wont take much of a pump for me. I think I could easily get away with a mj900 or smaller.

I need every GPH I can get out of my main pump so nothing to spare for the reactors. Separate pump is better anyhow.

I use a separate pump, one for my return and one for my manifold. My “aux pump” as I call it, feeds my reactors, ATS, pods breeding bucket, and a spare line that I can use as a mini power washer to clean my sump.

The MAIN reason I do this, is so if I shut down my display, everything else continues to run as normal. Or vice versa, if I need to change out a reactor, I don’t need to shut down my entire display tank.

In my previous tank, I ran a bean animal drain with a manifold off the return supplying two reactors. I was forever adjusting the bean animal drains until I got fed up and ditched the manifold. A second pump was installed and never had to adjust the gate valve for the drains again. Get a second pump unless you plan to tee off for something like a UV which should never get clogged.

Thanks everyone! I appreciate all the feed back. I’ll definitely run a second pump.