Return pump help.

Do you discharge your skimmer to a different compartment... how do you consider the mag 12 "keeping up"?

Look at people's sumps. The bubble trap is three partitions where the water flows through them over-under-over the last baffle

 

It discharges to the same compartment I had it doing it to a different but made to much noise and was to much flow into thw fuge.

 

What do you mean by better plumbing? If the output on the pump is 3/4 and the bulkheads on the tank for the return are 3/4 would changing it to a inch lose flow? Here is a pics of my setup.

 

Yes. The 3/4 " coming off the pump is not a restriction... it is sort of, but it has to be there to get pressure... anyway, change it to 1" all the way to the bulk head. Where you run tubing after the pump... with those barbed fittings... restricts things a lot. So nice and smooth 1" diameter all the way to the bulk head.

I took pictures in one of my write ups... the Herbi write up... I have pics of the difference between barbed bulkheads like you have after the pump, and threaded... big difference. Change those out. Even if it necks down at the bulkhead, it is still best to go back to an inch. Then tee off to 3/4 to go in the tank.

You will get all the flow you need out of the 1262.

And yes... running tubing after the pump helps with vibrations and noise... but hard pipe or run flex PVC. And flex PVC cant turn too hard, but running flex all the way to the tank bulkhead will do away with your 90s which also cause drag/friction... head loss. Each 90 roughly counts for an additional foot of head.

Take a look at my pics in my Herbie write up.
http://www.3reef.com/forums/i-made/my-herbie-overflow-write-up-pics-beware-60239.html

 

I use reinforced vinyl tubing on all my return pumps. If the pump outlet is 3/4" I use 1", if its 1" I use 1.25". The reason is as Powerman mentioned, the inside diameter of the barbed nipples is a restriction so by upsizing I eliminate that headloss.

I am not a fan of all PVC or spa flex either as it limits movement, does not allow for any misalignment and contributes to noise. I mix the reinforced tubing, or black vinyly tubing of yu can find it and PVC with plenty of unions and as few elbows and fittings as possible to cut down on headloss.

Almost all pump manufacturers recommend stepping up a size on the plumbing to increase the flow by reducing headloss.

 

Ok I will work on switching it. On the spa flex pipe do I glue the connectors the same as the hard pvc? I have never worked with spa flex pipe before.

 

Yes, you can use regular PVC primer and cement on spa flex just the same.

 

Ok thanks for the the info. I went and picked up pipe from HD and am starting on the change. I do have one more ? Since I have dual returns and the bulkheads are 3/4 would it be beter to close one off and just have it go up from 3/4 hard pipe and then tee off to 2 loc lines on each side for a total of 4 out puts? Also do I need to run a check valve or will that slow down the flow?

 

I would run 1" PVC vertically to a 1" tee where it can be reduced to 3/4" leading to each bulkhead for least resistance. On mine I have 1" bulkheads so ran the same 1" vertical plus to each bulkhead where I installed a 1x3/4 bushing and the Loc line. I started with two Loc Line nozzles on each side but the velocity was dismal so I wnet back to two single Loc Lines, one on each end. Make sure you keep the nozzles no more than an inch or so below the surface so you don't drain too much water back to the sump.

An NO never use a check valve, they are a false sense of security and will fail, as long as you keep the returns up high and provide freeboard in the sump you will never have an overflow or return related flood.

 

Ok so since I cant run a vertical return line up from the pump to the bulkheads it will be the flex tube coming up from the pump making kind of a turn/bend and then up to a 1" tee where it will have the 2 90deg 3/4 barb connectors sound about right.

Are 2 separate return lines really needed?

I could flip my sump around and give the pump a straight shot to the top where the bulkheads are but I would have to use 90deg elbows to get the drains moved. How much would that affect it? Lol starting to hate plumbing