I am about to purchase a used tank and was thinking about re-plumbing the system. So as we all know I came to the age old question of flow rates and Head Loss. My Internet search revealed a couple of really nice articles and downloadable calculators. Both articles are from Advanced Aquarist's Online Magazine. Due to the copyrighted nature of the material I will only provide links to the articles themselves and you will have to download the material provided by them yourself.
The first article is titled:
"AN ENGINEERING VIEW OF AQUARIUM SYSTEMS DESIGN: PUMPS AND PLUMBING", by SANJAY JOSHI, Ph.D., NATHAN PADEN & SHANE GRABER. If you like math and really nasty calculations (ok...if you like this stuff they're not nasty) then this is the article for you! There are a lot of tables, charts, formulas, and misc. information provided that goes well beyond anything that I personally want to take the time to understand. Thank the deity of your choice that towards the bottom of the article the writers have provided a link to an Excel spreadsheet to do a lot of the work for us. It has a built in "database" of pumps that you can select from; however, since it is an Excel spreadsheet, you can add your own pump data and use it. The article also references a pump database located at Reefs.org that you can find here, "Welcome to the Reefs.org Pump Selection Guide".
The second article is titled:
"Pump Head Loss Calculator - Easing System Design", By Shane Graber. This article is all about a downloadable calculator, written by the author, that you can install on your computer. Similar to the spread sheet above, you enter the requested information, and the program does most of the work for you. The program, similar to the spreadsheet, has a built in "database" of pumps. Also like the spreadsheet, the program is customizable so you can add your own pump data.
Note: If this information has already been posted, I apologize for the double post. I did search for similar information but did not locate much.
The first article is titled:
"AN ENGINEERING VIEW OF AQUARIUM SYSTEMS DESIGN: PUMPS AND PLUMBING", by SANJAY JOSHI, Ph.D., NATHAN PADEN & SHANE GRABER. If you like math and really nasty calculations (ok...if you like this stuff they're not nasty) then this is the article for you! There are a lot of tables, charts, formulas, and misc. information provided that goes well beyond anything that I personally want to take the time to understand. Thank the deity of your choice that towards the bottom of the article the writers have provided a link to an Excel spreadsheet to do a lot of the work for us. It has a built in "database" of pumps that you can select from; however, since it is an Excel spreadsheet, you can add your own pump data and use it. The article also references a pump database located at Reefs.org that you can find here, "Welcome to the Reefs.org Pump Selection Guide".
The second article is titled:
"Pump Head Loss Calculator - Easing System Design", By Shane Graber. This article is all about a downloadable calculator, written by the author, that you can install on your computer. Similar to the spread sheet above, you enter the requested information, and the program does most of the work for you. The program, similar to the spreadsheet, has a built in "database" of pumps. Also like the spreadsheet, the program is customizable so you can add your own pump data.
Note: If this information has already been posted, I apologize for the double post. I did search for similar information but did not locate much.
~Umbra Vipera
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