540 filtration opinions

[DB junkie]

Darts being 170 watts is news to me. My standard Darts run 130 watts, the hybrid 4300 gph run 150. Regardless, any pump will work- one thing that seems to be a constant here is redundancy - I'd definitely run 2 pumps over 1 regardless of what kind they are. IF you have m/f rays I'd plan on another tank in the future, so oversize the pumps now cause you may need them later that way you can just divert some water to the other tank (pups or time out when they get mature)

The RFS - I never even messed with mine, it worked right out of the gate, I'm sure with some fine tuning they could become VERY efficient.

What are your plans for the RFS? Have anything in mind for the inner tube?

Personally I'd use a rubbermaid tub for the 3rd chamber rather then a drum, not sure you're going to have much expansion room in the last drum for all this water when power cuts.

 

[specialized002]

I have an auto changer and will have an overflow in the filter. How many gph through a 55 RFS do u think is to much? Part of me wishes I just bought something done but what fun is there in that!? Lol

 

[DB junkie]

I'd think it would depend on how you design the RFS...... Tighter tolerances = slower flow rates.

The thing to remember is you can always divert excess water. You could run a separate loop or even a separate pump for the reactor, as they are designed for slower flow rates. I use an additional pump to feed a wet/dry. IF I over killed the return pumps I could just run a leg off them instead of needing yet another pump.

As far as too much flow all you can do is try. I wouldn't be surprised if it still caught stuff at 7K GPH..... Like I said, the stringiness of ray poo seems to really help this design.

 

[specialized002]

Awesome, thanks for the help. I think I'm gonna run 2 2" durso into the 3 chambers I previously stated then return with a reeflo barracuda, possibly a super dart. 1.5" then split to 2 1" returns that will return towards the front of the tank on top. Still tossing around the idea if dual 4' spray bars. Any opinions on the esm evolution pumps? Supposed to have American made motor.

 

[DB junkie]

Only Evo I ever looked at was the model Trev runs. Too many watts for me. My hybrids are rated roughly the same for 55 less watts. We all agreed redundancy is very important. I would never run 1 pump over 2 - but that's just me. I prefer Baldor motors on my pumps as I've never had any issues with them. Have had issues with bearings in AO Smith motors.

1.5 going to (2) 1" = restriction..... I personally wouldn't restrict the returns, but it won't hurt anything really.

I still think you're going to have issues when the pump is shut off though.... Sumps are supposed to be what? 1/3 tank volume? You're going to loose a lot of water out the drip drain, then when power comes back on you'll need to add water to avoid running the pump dry.

 

[specialized002]

What if I put the drip overflow in the tank and then on another overflow higher up a filter in case it gets too high?

 

[aldiaz33]

Darts being 170 watts is news to me. My standard Darts run 130 watts, the hybrid 4300 gph run 150....

I was going off of this flow chart for the Super Dart Gold that I purchased a few years back :



Taken from Reeflo's website (http://www.reeflopumps.com/), the current model Super Dart Gold draws 168 watts on average and the hybrid draws 158 watts; the GPH rating at 0' head is 4,200 and 4,100 respectively.I think it's a little deceiving that Reeflo is no longer listing the wattage draw at various head heights like they used to because most real world applications are going to run between 4' to 8' of head. To take the "average" by factoring the wattage draw (140 watts) at 16' of head where the pumps is only pushing 125GPH is a bit disingenuous. It makes it seem like the pumps are more efficient than they really are since most people won't be running them at 16' of head where they push only 125GPH.

If you are saying your old darts draw only 150 watts and push 4,300GPH, then I'm not really sure why Reeflo would abandon producing the older model you are running and decide to put out less efficient pumps. That wouldn't make any sense. The new darts don't even get 4,300GPH @ 0' head. I'm willing to bet that you are not getting anywhere near 4,300GPH if the pump is only drawing 150 watts. Even a really efficiently designed system will have at least 2' or 3' of head.

If your darts are as efficient as you say, they blow pretty much any pump out of the water at 28.6GPH/watt. The current dart and SDG models at 6' of head do about 20GPH/watt. It would be silly for Reeflo to put out a pump that was 30% less efficient than an older model.

I think a lot of people assume that you have to go with an external pump if you are running a big system, but that's not true. If your total dynamic head is <10', Laguna pumps are a great option. The added bonus is if you are setting the system up in a basement or in an area that's cold, you benefit from 100% of the pumps (heat) energy going directly into the water, which means your heaters will have to work less to maintain tropical temps. Submersibles also don't have seals that need to be replaced.

Reeflo's customer service is out of this world; I'm not knocking them. I'm just sharing other options, since submersibles tend to be poo pooed on this site as being inferior. In some applications they are actually the better option.

 

[DB junkie]

I'm not going to argue. My numbers are via kill-o-watt. IF this is a questionable measurement I could test with a fluke 87 or a clamp - your choice. Let me know if you want them tested and I'll be happy to.

Why are the newer ones crapier? I'd guess the same reason new cars or anything new are. More profit. I've ALWAYS said that baldor motored Darts are the way to go. Your add shows what I thought was an Emerson motor. The Darts I run are hard to find - they're hybrids. Took me almost a year to find a match to the single one I had. They use a massive 1/8 horse Baldor. I'd guess these motors cost more so they probably switched to a cheaper motor to maximize profit.

As far as GPH I have never stated a number. Maybe it's time to get a flow meter and try to end the never ending Reeflo/Laguna pissing match that ALWAYS comes up???

External/submersible is NOT an argument for me - my water is too hard for submersibles plain and simple. So I run externals- I have one that's been pushing water over a decade and it's seal began leaking on year 9. I killed 2 pondmaster hydrive submersibles in 2 years. They had to be descaled every 3 months or they would lock up and even then they'd still fail around a year in. I never ran Lagunas so I have nothing bad to say about them.

 

[DB junkie]

What if I put the drip overflow in the tank and then on another overflow higher up a filter in case it gets too high?

Have you ran drip systems on sump systems before?

 

[specialized002]

Submersible pumps are looking more appealing the more i look at them. I have not ran drop systems before. It's new to me and seems it's going to be a trial and error thing. Shouldn't be too hard to pump the submersible out of a drum right?