im making a DIY plywood sump. getting ready to drill the holes for the drip tray but i am up for debate on what size holes to drill.. my drip tray is 18in x 23inches and i will have a pretty high water flow. my pump does 3500gph the sump is 120 gallons and will hold about 42 gallons worth of bio filtration. so, with that in mind lets hear your ideas
best size holes for drip tray
- Thread starter wheatgerm
- Start date
Something tells me you want the nerdy approach...
But first just to be in the spirit of the thread, lets take the hap-hazard approach. Pick a drill bit at random. One that you like. Or one that just stands out from the rest. Just make sure it is sharp.
On the side, it should have the size (diameter). You'll need that later.
So lets jump over to the flow for a minute (800-1000 gph). Using the relationship that a one inch pipe will flow 600 gph, calculate the size that you will need to handle your max flow. Keep in mind that the area of a circle is that 'pie are square' thing. (A= pi x r^2)
Next, using the drill size, calculate it's cross sectional area. Now divide the cross sectional area of the pipe size needed for your flow by the cross sectional area of your drill bit.
That is how many holes you will need to drill using your bit.
But first just to be in the spirit of the thread, lets take the hap-hazard approach. Pick a drill bit at random. One that you like. Or one that just stands out from the rest. Just make sure it is sharp.
On the side, it should have the size (diameter). You'll need that later.
So lets jump over to the flow for a minute (800-1000 gph). Using the relationship that a one inch pipe will flow 600 gph, calculate the size that you will need to handle your max flow. Keep in mind that the area of a circle is that 'pie are square' thing. (A= pi x r^2)
Next, using the drill size, calculate it's cross sectional area. Now divide the cross sectional area of the pipe size needed for your flow by the cross sectional area of your drill bit.
That is how many holes you will need to drill using your bit.
Woa... Talk about math work lol. I was just thinking about one heck of alot of 3/8 inch holes lol... Well let's see, I will have 4 PVC pipes at 1 1/2 inch returning from the tank to the sump and my pump will be realistically returning about 3000gph back into the tank so.........????
Go with 3/8ths. there's way more math than in the statement above. one 2" pipe flows more water than two 1" pipes do to drag (head) loss.
So saying all that water will easily flow through one 2" pipe and that's the same area (pie R squared crap) as lets say one thousand 1/16" holes is just crap IMO.
or
You can buy the plastic peg board, i use it and it's great. Attached pic is one of my sumps with water flowing across the peg board. Another is the peg board label and another is the peg board supporting some filter floss right above some bio media in a bio tower I made. The peg board holes are 3/8" that size hole distributes the water evenly IMO
So saying all that water will easily flow through one 2" pipe and that's the same area (pie R squared crap) as lets say one thousand 1/16" holes is just crap IMO.
or
You can buy the plastic peg board, i use it and it's great. Attached pic is one of my sumps with water flowing across the peg board. Another is the peg board label and another is the peg board supporting some filter floss right above some bio media in a bio tower I made. The peg board holes are 3/8" that size hole distributes the water evenly IMO