wet/dry plumbing questions... i'm lost!!!

[turtlesrock]

i use pvc but flexible tubing would be more effective. the over flow tube should be 1 inch wider than your pump hose so that i will carrie it down fast enough

 

[Griller]

Is it possible to run two pumps instead of using an overflow(cause i wouldnt want to drill my tank), like buy two of the same pumps and have one pumping water out of your tank and one that pumps it back?

Making te flow rate exactly the same would be difficult. I think the pump from the tank to the sump would be assisted by gravity and the syphon effect so the flow rate would be higher. The return pump flow rate is reduced because it must oppose gravity. Your sump will flood in this case.

You can prevent this by havinbg your return pump located near the waterlevel of the tank so it will suck air before it floods the sump (very noisy). If the return pump fails then your return pump will run dry and possibly overheat.

If you could use a sump mounted above the tank if you don't want to drill. Another option is to use one of those clevel syphon overflows.

Hope this helps

 

[Egon]

Thanks for the info, but both overflows will go into same 55g sump (with twin wet/drys on each side of sump). Only going to use one return pump in the middle. I want both wet/drys to get same amount of water going into them.

Like this... current wet/dry on right is my drilled overflow and want to add a DIY overflow to run second identical wet/dry. Just want same amount of flow in each using two different overflow styles. Can be done if this DIY overflow could be adjustable I think.

So you want 2 wet/drys and 2 overflows?
My wet/dry's are set up almost that way, Essentially I have 4 wet drys and two overflows. The easiest way to set that system up is to split your return line to each wet/dry and keep the same overflow. I have a 1.5" drain line going to two 1" lines. Each 1" line goes to separate sides of the wet/dry. Then roughly the same amount of water will go to each dry area, give or take.
If you want to add a pump or just get a more powerful pump you may have issues with the return's not being large enough for the added capacity. If you do get a larger pump you can throttle back the flow to match your overflow capacity but that's all you can do with out drilling another hole or making the existing hole a little larger.
If you do add another overflow don't worry about one wet/dry getting more water than the other. Just try to get them close to the same level and you will be all set. Then you can put in an extra pump and rock and roll on double the filtration! Also you have built in redundancy if one pump fails (it will) you have a built in back up. You wont be just "dead in the water" (wink)

 

[Egon]

ok, i came up with a good question lol. Does it matter how much water your pump pumps out if you use the same size tubing for the removal of water and pumping it back in?

Yes!

The drain is not pressurized, it is gravity fed and it drains at a much slower rate and bends in the pipe slow the water even more. Also few people realize this but one 2" line actually drains more water than two 1" lines. So if your making a new overflow go with the largest possible drain hole you can fit instead of a few smaller holes. It's easy to add another pump it's more difficult to add more drain capacity. Hope this helps.