How Many Pumps Do I Need?

bg7003

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Hey,
With my wet/dry filter for my 55 gallon, do i need two pumps? one to pull the water in and one to pump it out? I'm looking into maybe a mag drive 5 or 7 for the tank and i was wondering if the gravity overflow ill be able to keep up with a pump of that size.
Thanks
 
If the gravity fed overflow uses the same, or thinker, piping as the feed from the filter, gravity will be more than capable of handling the flow. Adding a pump in to the mix for taking water down the the sump again is just asking for a wet floor :sad: :no: Pump it up to the display and let gravity bring it back down.

I would use the pump's outlet port diameter for the feed tubing, and then the next size up for two overflows back down to the sump. This ensures that both are able to take the full flow alone if the other gets blocked :good:

All the best
Rabbut
 
using a "double" size drain tube, taken from measuring the pumps return tubing, is not going to equalize the flow down with the pumps return. The drain tube needs to be significantly larger and also based on the exact gph coming from the sump. That means factoring in all the elbows the water will flow through before entering the main system. I would avoid simply using a tube to drain the water, Put a HOB overflow box on your 55g and be safe, cause you can get a wet floor from overflowing the sump as well if the power ever goes out.
 
You are more likely to get a wet floor with the overflow box TBH. Pipe of twice the diameter of the return will take more than the return feeds. You set the level in the tank by drilling 1/2" or so below the waterline. Once filled, switch off the pump, allow the water in the display to stop draining, and then brim the sump. Now switch the pump back on, and the tank will re-fill and the drains will start to work again. After 1/2 an hour, mark in permanant pen a max line on the sump, where the level in the sump has settled. Now, the only way the sump will overflow, is if you are stupid enough to fill the sump past said max line. With an overflow-box, once running, an overfull sump, or the syphen in the overflow box breaking (happens often for many) will caurse an overflow...

All the best
Rabbut
 
Ok,
I found some 25/35mm ehiem tubing laying around so thats what im using for the overflow. The pump on the other hand, I'm planning on using 3/4" outside diameter PVC. I'm not sure of the which kind of pump yet. With the tubing on the over flow, it's directly connected onto the two over flow tubes. From there, i have it connecting to 3/4inch pvc and shut off, but the main majority of the tubing is the 25/35 stuff. The two ehiem tubes connect at a 3/4" T PVC pipe. From the shut off it goes into the filling part of the wet/dry. I think this is going to work so far.
 

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