Manifold, good idea?

Hey everyone,

I'm planning on upgrading my 29g to a 40g breeder. I'm in the midst of planning everything out and right now I'm trying to figure out my plumbing. I plan on using a herbie overflow (~400gph), as I've heard good things about them and I really want this tank to be quiet. Now, for the return I've been tossing many ideas around in my head. Should I use a manifold or not? One goal I'm trying to accomplish with this build is using less pumps.

Right now I feel like my sump is just filled with pumps. I have one for my return (mag3), then one for my skimmer (also a mag3) and then one for my po4 reactor (MJ1200). I was thinking about using just one pump and utilizing a manifold (like so many have done on this forum...Otty and sparky (who is in the progress of doing so, go sparky!!) just to name a few). The pump would need to be something around 1000-1100gph. I've looked at the pan world 50pxx and the mag12 as my choices, both have 3/4" outs. (anyone have any better suggestions, shoot!!!) I've looked around and found two possibilities.

One would be similar to sparky's manifold (the one i'm looking at is pretty much the same thing, just a tad smaller). It has a 1" intake and 4x 1/2" outs and it goes upwards. I would use a reducer bushing to turn the 3/4" out on the pump to a 1" out and attach the manifold. Then have the 4x 1/2" outs go to 3/4" outs with more bushings so everything fits my equipment.

The second possibility is having a sort of "to the side manifold" idea where the manifold is just a straight pipe going up with 4 "tees" protruding to the side. The one I found is a 1" pipe with 4x 3/4" outlets. The four outlets would allow for more things to be attached because the 1" pipe would just continue up for my return. I would probably reduce the continuation to 3/4" to accommodate my return (what do you guys think about this?).

Now the question is, how much flow will be lost in reducing and expanding these outlets with the manifold? Is it really worth it? I'm kind of leaning towards the the second option. How big should the return be? But I just wanted to see what you all thought!!

 

Ermano, I thought of this too...I can't help you, but I want to follow the thread. Post pics and details if you go through with it. I'll let you be my Guinnea Pig!!;D;D

 

Well I ran a single Iwaki 70 for my return to my 50 breeder, skimmer MRC-2, and remote sand bed. The return was 1.5" from the pump to 1.5" T with 1" to Gate Valves on all 4 outputs. Here is a picture that might make more sense. The valve on the end was out to the return.



So is this one pump going to be in the stand? Reason I ask is by going with one pump it will have to be larger pressure rated type pump so noise might be an issue.

 

nice set up!!!!!!!!!

 

Haha we'll see!!

Yeah, that does make sense. It probably will be in the stand, how much pressure would be needed for a job like that?

 

What kind of pump does your skimmer require? Than from there I think it would be an estimate on how much flow everything else is going to use. Since it will not have far to push the water might not be an issue. I would leave a an extra valved output so if your pump is too large you could always run water back to your sump. Also I recommend gate valves for this application not ball valves. This way you can fine tune the flow.

 

Yeah I plan on using gate valves for the touchy stuff (granted they are a little pricey). For the skimmer the remora seems to be doing it's job pretty nicely and that takes about 290-300gph. My reactor will be tuned to where my media is tumbling and I've found that to be about 250gph. So that gives us ~540-550gph taken up. I could use a pump rated for 1000-1100gph right? I still don't know which manifold type I should incorporate.

Thanks for everyones input!

 

I've decided on not incorporating a manifold on my new system. It would be cheaper to just buy a return pump to do just that...return water to the DT. The goal I was trying to achieve with this tank was simplicity, and using one pump to power all these things was part of it. It just seems, for a 40g especially, kind of pointless. Maybe for a future build I will incorporate this idea, as to me it makes more sense in larger tanks.

 

I'm using a 1200 for all the equipment (Ca reactor, media reactor, fuge, SCWD, chiller, etc.) & another 1200 for flow in my 120g.

 

It's a good idea IMHO to have a manifold.
I built one that runs about everything. Sometimes I'm not sure if it was a good idea to run the skimmer too though. I can't really turn it off if I need to. I do have a ball valve for it but it blows my return jets off if I close is completely. So maybe my pump is too powerful.lol Anyway it's hard to find a perfect balance but I'm still glad I did it.
I got a lot of ideas here:
Prisitine plumbing thread! - Page 3 - Reef Central Online Community