PLUMBING MANIFOLD HELP

[azzajk]

Plumbing help please

i have setup a reefer 3XL 900l and trying to finalize this plumbing. i thought it would be easier to draw to explain lol.

The equipment is sitting on the other side of the wall but trying to determine if a manifold in my sitiation is best. From what i understand manifold will allow me to adjust the flow for each device to their specific flow rates however it has the downside that its not trwating the same water. For example the chiller is not coolinf the water after going through the UV (its a pentair 120w uv so will heat up a decent amount).

In my case am i best to do the manifold?

A second question to that is where should the feed in and feet out go to.. i know its best to run it back to the display but that is a little more difficult. please note the tank does have dual return however its currently setup with 1 return with a Y peice to convert the dual down to one. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated !

 

[MarineandReef Jaron]

The first thing I would ask is do you need to run the equipment on a dedicated manifold pump or can you use the return pump. For the chiller, I see no reason why you can't simply run your return line in and out of the chiller. For the PAX and the UV you might want more control so putting those on the manifold makes more sense.

 

[srobertb]

I’ve made a manifold. I have a sump/refugium in my basement. I’m using flow sensors (Neptune). There is a single pump that pumps from the sump through a manifold to the refugium (refugium is a straight line with 3 “T’s” off it for the manifold).

With your manifold you can take any piece of equipment offline or change it out easily. With everything in line you may simplify things but you have to shut down everything to service one thing. With a manifold you can hypothetically control flow rates too. Your algae reactor may want 200gph and your chiller may want 400gph for instance.

The bad- Flow rate probably will not stay static. As algae grows and life builds up, flow will be inhibited which will most likely increase or decrease flow through other devices and you’ll need to adjust valves as this happens. If your UV needs 300gph, reactor needs 100, and chiller needs 400, as your reactor grows out, chances are it will drop to 80 and the additional flow will go elsewhere. I’d check my chiller’s rating to make sure I was confident it would still function- ie if the chiller wants 400gph, will it still be effective at 500 or is that not enough contact time? Same question for UV.


What I found:

1. Get a bigger pump than you think you need. Pump manufacturers lie like rugs.
2. A dedicated pump for the manifold is the way to go if you have concerns flow rates may change over time. Yes I could adjust salinity, and replace the carbon weekly…or I could just throw a bag of carbon in the sump with some flow and save myself headaches and weekly maintenance.
3. Tuning isn’t easy. Not impossible. But Even with a DC pump every time you change one thing it screws up another thing. So if you plan on taking reactors on/off frequently plan on readjusting everything each time.

What I would do: Probably not run an algae reactor (what I think you have here labeled “PAX”) inline with something expensive and finicky like a Chiller. I’d run any equipment where flow is expected to degrade over time (most reactors for instance) on its own singular pump.

I still use my manifold for UV and would use it for a chiller if need be.

 

[o2manyfish]

For bigger systems - 250g + I have built some really slick manifolds using gravity feed.

Whatever volume you are pumping into your display tank - say 1000gph is flowing out the bottom of the tank at the same rate - just not at the same pressure. None of your devices on the manifold require pressure - just flow of water.

Build a manifold off the return to the sump. You can have a valve to still control flow to each individual device. The only major difference to your plumbing is normally the dump to the sump is a straight pipe down. In this situation you plumbing - using a size pipe large than normal - from the tank to the manifold area and then run a horizontal pipe (which the manifold taps off of) and at the end of the horizontal pipe, where it dumps into the sump, you make the pipe go up before going down. This up and over - you only need the height of a couple of 90's - keeps a constant positive pressure in the pipe for keeping the manifold pressurized. I have done this with chillers, refugiums, calcium reactors, carbon reactors, and UVs. I have not done it with a Pax Bellum.

Dave B