CL Drain Question -

[Miguelito]

I am creating a CL on my 150. I already have the Oceansmotions Squirt - but am trying to choose a pump. The Squirt can handle ~1,200 GPH and probably a little more.

But I just realized that my drain is only one inch (drilled it this way since the inlet for the OM is 1" - too late to change). I read somewhere that a 1" drain will not drain that much water. Is that just if its gravity fed? Will the pump on the CL actually suck more water thru?

I was hoping to put a Red Dragon 4.5 on there which is probably about 1,450GPH run in the US. But obviously I don't want to spend $600 on a pump if I can't even get the water full performance.

Please help, thanks!

David

(this is what happens when you rely on Streams for so long, you don't know how to plumb )

[GTR]

Is the hole 1" or is the hole for a 1" bulkhead?

I think the rule to not restrict the suction side of the pump with a smaller fitting.

SteveU

[Miguelito]

Hi, Its a 1" bulkhead. I had a huge screen made to reduce suction so that shouldn't restrict it. All the plumbing from the 1" bulkhead to the pump inlet will be 1" - but I don't think 1" will drain 1,300 - 1,400 so does the pump create suction?

[nbd13]

yeah do not restrict the intake.

you really need to make the size of your bulkhead witht he size of the pump intake that you want to get.

an example,

i had my tank drilled for 2" bulkheads for the intake because the Darts are that big on the intake side.

is your tank acrylic? if so you can drill it, its VERY easy to do, heck i did it.

Nick

[nbd13]

oh BTW a 1" drain will be alittle less than 600gph.....

the pump will create suction, but you should never restrict the intake to the pump. better to just to make the hole bigger or find a pump with 1" intakes.

Nick

[GTR]

Nick...

But if it's a CL can you really say what the max flow would be?

SteveU

[Miguelito]

Hi Nick - it is acrylic but unfortunately the hole is already drilled. It's difficult to increase the size because there is no acrylic for the pilot bit.

Does anyone know the max that 1" will drain?

Will it damage the pump? Anybody have a direct line to Klaus on this one? It's almost impossible to create a new whole anywhere else given the set-up and the timing.

[Miguelito]

OK, I got off the phone with some at finsreef. The intake of the pump is actually only 40mm - which they convert to 1.25" US PVC. I learned from my BK and Eheims that Europeans measure PVC from the outside diameter - so I'm guessing the inside diameter is equivalent to 1.25". So that must mean that the flow calculators do not apply to CL. Otherwise the RD's are built flawed.

Just making some educated guesses, please correct me if that assumption is wrong.

Thanks!

David

[mane3215]

It would be easy to take a dremel to that bulkhead hole and widen it up a bit. I would personally give that a go, I don't think anyone could really mess that up unless you are really really mechanically challenged.

[moonpod]

You can only gravity flow 600 gph through a 1" hole, but you can push or suck a lot more. The thing is you "constrict" by having the 1" hole instead of something larger. 40mm inside is actually slightly smaller than 1.25". In a closed loop situation, since you're already constricting to 1" on the OM squirt, I'm not sure it really matters if your drain is constricted to 1". To be safe I would widen up the hole.

[nbd13]

I had to make my hole in my sump bigger its not that hard at all.

its very easy to do.

heres a link to my post about it,

http://www.zeovit.com/forums/showthr...highlight=hole

take a look its very easy to do depedning on your setup you might need one more person to help.

you just need to drill into wood and use a wood saw, but put a drill bit in the middle of the hole saw and put wood behind the hole. that way the drill bit will keep the acrylic from shattering. it acts as a guide.

if you need more help let me know and i could explain it alittle better.

Nick

[nbd13]

also PM scottw, hes the one that can me a detailed description on how to do it.

Nick

[Miguelito]

Thanks guys. After a little more investigating and looking at intake sizes on pumps, I realized that the overflow drainage really is applicable only to overflows and not CL's.

Nick, you give me far too much credit and ability. ;-) Now how about some updated pix of your skimmer?

Red Dragon going on order soon .....

[Ruth]

Don't know if you read posts on drilling my acrylic 190 but I was just about sick at the thought. Did it though and I am very plumbing challenged and had never done anything like that before. I drilled all of my holes slightly smaller than the bulkhead and then just took a dremel to them and kept checking to see when the bulkhead would fit in the hole. It was so easy - just hard on my nerves.

[Travis]

You are correct Fliger. The overflow drain rating is nowhere near the same as the CL intake drain. A CL intake drain doesn't have a calculator or rating because it depends on the pump. For example, I'm running an Iwaki 100, which has a 1" intake and outlet on a 1" bulkhead. And that pump is sucking about 2000 gph through that hole. However, the rule I've always heard is that you NEVER want to restrict the size of the intake to smaller than what the actual pump intake is. I would check with Klaus before trying a 1.25" RD on a 1" bulkhead, but I get the feeling he will say you shouldn't do it. Worst case scenario, just cap the existing bulkhead and drill a larger one a few inches away from it for your intake.