HELP - Plumbing Issue

I am planning on building a 150 Gallon tank soon. I am planning the Overflows out, and was going to go with two 1.5" drains. According to the flow charts I've seen, a gravity fed 1.5" drain can handle 2000+ GPH. However, it has been suggested that I use four 1.5" drains.

This goes out to anyone who has any 1.5" drains on their tank...how much GPH are you getting out of your 1.5" drain?

 

bump

 

if its dual overflows 1.5 drains is more than enough.. u dont need all that flow going through your sump..

 

I dont remember if I have a 1.25 or a 1.5" drain, but it's a single, and it's handling a rio hf32, probably about 1400 gph, with no problem. When I first aquired the tank, the original owner had TWO hf32s hooked up, so that drain was handling almost 3000gph. I KNOW my drain is not over 1.5".

Why so much flow through your sump? More flow = more noise/heat

 

Having built a Bean overflow-based tank, I know from that experience; that the figures in flow charts are accurate, but address flow in a siphon. The typical overflow is not a siphon, but rather, delivers a mixture of water and air bubbles to your sump. You should expect your overflows to handle slightly less than flow charts report. Just something to keep in mind. Good luck!

 

I'm not trying to get tons of flow...I am just inquiring how much others who have a 1.5" drain are pulling.

 

I will check my drain when I get home tonight, but I know it was handling two hf32s with about 5 feet of head. That, and I know there is a bulkhead inside that is even more limiting, like another .25" narrower. I'm not running a syphon either.

 

I look at this way:
If a CPR overflow with two 1" drains is rated for 1200GPH, two 1.5" drains would be rated for 2700GPH.

I say two 1.5" is plenty.

 

My build is not final yet so I cant speak from experience 100%, here is my 2cents. Im in the final process of my 90 build with the Bean Animal. Im still waiting for the final piece of my build: the return pump. I went with the PanWorld 100PX-X, which would be pushing around little over 950gph with the headloss. I used three 1.5" pipes and the main one is supposed to handle upto 2,000gph. But the thing about Bean Animal is, even the main drain handles that much, doesnt mean the system handles 6,000gph. It works as a whole. Each pipe has its own function.

Id recommend you a Bean Animal, even though some people think its overkill, because of the fail safe and the silence. But if you see how it works in person, tweaking around to fine-tune it, youd know you need three pipes to complete the system.

I hope this helps.