wats up guys im working on my sump but im having a problem with the drip plate. what size holes do i need and how far away from eachother should i put them? can i drill holes close to the edge of the plastic or do i need like a buffer zone of like an inch or so? thanks alot!
drip plate design
- Thread starter szymon328
- Start date
What is the GPH of your sump/pump and what size is the drip plate, about how many holes are you looking to have?
From what i've seen 3/16" or 1/4" is about right.
From what i've seen 3/16" or 1/4" is about right.
not sure about the gph of the pump cuz it came with the tank and ive looked at it bout cant find the gph... or maybe i just didnt look in the right spot. the drip plate is gona be 11 5/8" x 13 3/4". not sure how many holes i need thats y im asking 
just checked the pump it doesnt say the gph but its 1/15 hp and 3450 rpm from custom sea life. any one know more about this pump? help is much appreciated
Google turned this up, but I'm not sure how accurate it is:
I'm not 100% on the math, but gathering from a few sources I've been able to gather that in order for 1350 gallons of water per hour to flow you would need approximately 1.767 square inches of cross sectional area between the holes.
Many smaller holes will provide for better results with the drip plate. You can use whatever size holes you'd like, but I'll give you an example of how to calculate your needs using 1/16" holes.
To calculate cross sectional area of a circle you use (pi x r)^2
(0.0625 x 3.1415)^2 = 0.0385508682
Then you take the necessary 1.767 square inches of cross sectional are necessary and divide that by the 0.0385508682 in a 1/16" hole
1.76700 / 0.0385508682 = 45.8355436
Call it 46 holes. I'm a fan of symmetry and like to make sure that I have a margin of safety in case the holes start to clog or something happens so I would probably make 56 holes arranged in a grid of 8 x 6 with 1/8" slots routed around the edges as an additional safety measure. Here's a quick MSPaint sketch of what I would do.
I'd run the design by a couple of the other guys in the DIY section, but I think this should work. Best of luck, if you have any questions let me know and I'll try to help in any way I can.
Source
I'm not 100% on the math, but gathering from a few sources I've been able to gather that in order for 1350 gallons of water per hour to flow you would need approximately 1.767 square inches of cross sectional area between the holes.
Many smaller holes will provide for better results with the drip plate. You can use whatever size holes you'd like, but I'll give you an example of how to calculate your needs using 1/16" holes.
To calculate cross sectional area of a circle you use (pi x r)^2
(0.0625 x 3.1415)^2 = 0.0385508682
Then you take the necessary 1.767 square inches of cross sectional are necessary and divide that by the 0.0385508682 in a 1/16" hole
1.76700 / 0.0385508682 = 45.8355436
Call it 46 holes. I'm a fan of symmetry and like to make sure that I have a margin of safety in case the holes start to clog or something happens so I would probably make 56 holes arranged in a grid of 8 x 6 with 1/8" slots routed around the edges as an additional safety measure. Here's a quick MSPaint sketch of what I would do.
I'd run the design by a couple of the other guys in the DIY section, but I think this should work. Best of luck, if you have any questions let me know and I'll try to help in any way I can.
MTWiley;4906660; said:Google turned this up, but I'm not sure how accurate it is:
Source
I'm not 100% on the math, but gathering from a few sources I've been able to gather that in order for 1350 gallons of water per hour to flow you would need approximately 1.767 square inches of cross sectional area between the holes.
Many smaller holes will provide for better results with the drip plate. You can use whatever size holes you'd like, but I'll give you an example of how to calculate your needs using 1/16" holes.
To calculate cross sectional area of a circle you use (pi x r)^2
(0.0625 x 3.1415)^2 = 0.0385508682
Then you take the necessary 1.767 square inches of cross sectional are necessary and divide that by the 0.0385508682 in a 1/16" hole
1.76700 / 0.0385508682 = 45.8355436
Call it 46 holes. I'm a fan of symmetry and like to make sure that I have a margin of safety in case the holes start to clog or something happens so I would probably make 56 holes arranged in a grid of 8 x 6 with 1/8" slots routed around the edges as an additional safety measure. Here's a quick MSPaint sketch of what I would do.
I'd run the design by a couple of the other guys in the DIY section, but I think this should work. Best of luck, if you have any questions let me know and I'll try to help in any way I can.
thanks for the awesome info!!! i was getting a bit impatient cuz i posted this tread but didnt get an answer quick enough and i was so eager to get back to work on the tank that i went along wit .25 inch holes spaced 1 inch apart.... meaning i have 154 holes lol well on the safe side. i did the math for the pipe im running its 1 1/4 inch pvc wit an area of 1.5~ inches and my drip plate has 7.5~ square inches of holes
i did this like half way through being done with all the holes. i did read that you need ALOT of holes so hopefuly ill be good. the water runs faster through the pipe cuz of gravity anyway and it slowly disperses over the plate so i guess time will tell if i drilled too many holes or not, or just one of they guys thats good with this stuff lolforgot to mention that my bio filter space is 11 5/8 by 13 inches and hopefuly with many holes ill get even dispersal of water over the bio balls