Plumbing question/suggestion

Basically the amount of extra flow you get just by going up in PVC size is pretty significant.

GPM is gallons per minute. GPM X 60 is gallons per hour, because there are 60 minutes in an hour.

 

Lol, I don't know what to respond

 

No one said you had to.

Just trying to help you out since you didn't quite understand what Az was saying, another very experienced and awesome help to this forum.

 

I am a bit surprised with the responses I have received from this thread or this reef forum .....
Maybe I need to step back a bit and learn the culture before posting.....

I thought I have been around enough to blend in but this is a bit different compared to other forums I have been to.
Oh well one can never stop learning right?

 

Unless I missed your humor, I was just trying to give you a "simple English" explanation of what Az was saying, like you asked. He is the "go to" person for plumbing, I would hate to see what he has to say not be understood.

Again, unless you were joking and I missed that, then sorry. Just trying to help you out, like you asked, with Az's post.

 

I appreciate your enthusiasm to help. I think we all need that ;

I sort of have a hint now

Back to the previous post, I am just a bit confused about what Az posted. I was not going bigger on the return pump. My drain was bigger, but that is not going to increase my flow. In fact the same return pump is going from a 3/4 bulkhead but now down sized to a 1/2 bulk head....
I guess he threw some tips out there so I might use that if I needed to increase my return pump or something. Plus my original question was if it should be OK to reduce the drain from 1.25 to 1.0 as my return bk is only .5....

here is the joke. And please note, I am not making fun or trying to offend anyone. I am just enjoying to give jokes out.
I ask you what your name is and you say today is Friday. The information is correct but it does not help me answer my question.

 

Here let me help since you were so patient answering my math questions.
What he is saying is a smaller pipe(even just one size smaller) makes a pretty big difference in the amount of flow it can handle.Also as a slime coat starts to develop inside the pipes from sw this decreased flow gets even worse.
It is very hard to determine a persons demeanor online making it hard to determine someones personality.I think the point I was trying to make in my original response was an ugly pipe is an ugly pipe regardless of size, but thats just me. I think the easiest solution to your problem if you don't like the look is to either paint or place a dark piece of window tint over the back panel of the overflow.Its always better to have a larger then necessary drain believe me.You will also want to put some kind of strainer on the drain especially if you will have snails present in the system as they will eventually make there way in there.This strainer will need to be cleaned periodically making the need for a larger drain even more important.Hope this helps.

 

I am not sure Az meant that in his post, but I guess you can translate it that way.

I agree that the slim coat will build up inside the pipe. with the 1/2 inch return pump, that is going to hurt the performance 5-10 years down the road. I did not even think of cleaning the return pipe/hose. the drain is easy to clean.....Lesson learned here.
As the slim coat layer build up inside the pipes. The result is less water pumped by return pump and less water to be drained....That won't raise the risk of having the floor flooded as both pipes get smaller and the pipe from the return pump is more likely to get smaller fast.....Next time I should never get a tank with 1/2 inch for the return pump.....

 

The slime coat develops in days not years.The needed strainer can make the drain clog faster then the return. A pressurized return pipe will be able to handle a loss of efficiency much better then a gravity fed drain pipe. 99.9% of people use drains of at least 1.25 even when using more then one.

 

I agree with the strainer part. That would be silly to put a strainer inside the drain. I don't know how the strainer word got into this thread. I was thinking of reducing the 1.25 to 1 inch using a reducer for the drain so the stand pipe won't be so huge. I don't know how often the stand pipe should be clean as water is constantly moving through the pipe. The build up will happen but I would think that take 5 years or more to clog the drain pipe....I have not clean my current 1 inch stand pipe for over 3 years. Maybe I need to take a look at what has been built up inside that guy