Drain and return size
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Category: Specialized Discussion
Forum Name: Equipment
Forum Description: This is the place to ask question about reef equipment.
URL: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=81308
Printed Date: October 18 2025 at 5:36am
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Topic: Drain and return size
Posted By: Mymanfryday
Subject: Drain and return size
Date Posted: November 14 2016 at 2:50pm
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I'm starting up a 90 gallon reef tank with a 55 gallon refugium. I am trying to size my drain and return lines and I'm getting a lot of different answers. My pump is just over 1200 gph. What size drain and return lines would you recommend, and what type of drain herbie durso or something else I haven't heard of? |
Replies:
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: November 14 2016 at 3:27pm
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You really need to answer the second part of your question before the first part can be answered. If you go with a Herbie style drain then you can actually get away with smaller lines for everything but the emergency. Durso will need a bit larger pipe than Herbie and a gravity fed will probably need a bit more than Durso. On my 90 I use the two 1" lines in the overflow for a Herbie Durso Hybrid. One line is the primary drain and runs with a valve controlled siphon. The other line is the emergency drain. The Primary drain is 1" pipe all the way to the sump. The Emergency is 1" to the bulkhead and then 1 1/2" from there to the sump. The larger pipe is to help ensure that the emergency is noisy to alert me to an issue with the primary drains flow. There is a gate valve on the primary drain line so that I can adjust the flow to match what is going into the tank from my return. My return is 1" pipe that goes up the back and then splits into two 3/4" lines that run to each end of the tank and then have loc-line to allow for directional control of the return water. This setup is as close to silent as I have ever had and has been rock solid even with the occasional snail in the pipe incidents. ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: November 14 2016 at 4:59pm
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The drain teeth are a limiting factor. They hold back water that could cause the sump to overflow if too much water is pumped up. 500-800 gph is a good drain capacity for one overflow. There should always be a valve on the output side of the pump. The flow is then adjusted to match the drain capacity. This then solves every drain design/issue. Aloha Mark  ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member 
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Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: November 14 2016 at 5:26pm
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Keep in mind that my setup uses a DC return pump so I do not run a valve on the return side as I control the flow with the pump speed controller. The overflow on any current 90 gallon can handle more than 1300 gph as I'm running almost 1300gph through mine right now. I do have to keep the Coraline of the teeth but you have to do that with any of them. Mark still runs AC pumps on his setup because they are easy to find fairly cheap. I'm not sure which type of pump you have. ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: Mymanfryday
Date Posted: November 15 2016 at 8:04am
| My tank is not drilled yet. I was Getting a Bit confused because when I was looking around online I was seeing between 1"and 1.5" on the drain and 12" to 18" on the weir. What I was thinking to do was three 1" bulkheads with a herbie drain and a gravity emergency. Did you go durso on your emergency to increase the flow?. My pump is AC and I was going to put a valve on a relief line that would be tee'd into the main return, not on the main return itself. It would cycle back into the sump. For the weir I wanted to go 12". The 2 things I am most nervous about are the 12" weir and the 1" emergency drain. |
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: November 15 2016 at 8:18am
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My Emergency is gravity with no durso and easily handles the entire volume of the water being returned into the tank. Man is it noisy when it does it but it works like a charm. If the water gets too high above the Emergency it will start a full siphon which will move some serious water very quickly until it starts sucking air in again. I would put a valve on both the return line and the bypass line from your return pump. It's better to be able to control it than to need to and not be able to. 12" weir should be more than enough. The factory weir on a reef ready tank is only 9" maybe 9.75" considering the curve in them. So 12" will actually help give you even more overhead on your return volume. I'm assuming that the 1200gph is the max rating on your pump and not the volume at 5'+ of head pressure, right? If your location in the United States is anywhere near the more specific location of Davis county you are more than welcome to come visit and see how mine is done. ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: November 15 2016 at 9:46am
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+1 I strongly recommend viewing other setups, especially if this is a first for you. Because the tank is not drilled, you have many options. There are many who would rather drill near the top of the back glass to avoid the tall top to bottom overflow. On the commercially manufactured tanks the vertical overflow surrounding holes drilled in the bottom glass takes up too much space in the display, IMO.  Regarding the herbie style siphon drain, it is a simple matter to place a screen around the siphon overflow to keep snails out so the emergency drain is never needed. Let me know and I'll post pics of this on my system and a friends system. Oh, and if you Tee the return line to send some of that water elsewhere, it's best to install a valve on that line too. It's all about controlling the flow and being able to isolate the lines when shutting things down for maintenance and repair. One last tip. Stay away from a backflow valve on the return line. They have been known to fail. There are more fail proof ways to keep too much water from flowing back into the sump. Aloha, Mark ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
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