I'm planning on building a closed loop system for my 55 gallon and have a few plumbing/flow rate questions. I plan on building something very simlar to the one on melev's reef. I'd like a turnover rate in the tank of about 15 - 20x per hour. The return is going to be about a 4 foot head, so I'm planning to get a mag 9.5, which supposedly will give me a flow rate of 800gph (without considering flow restrictions from the scwd and plumbing) Other circulation in the tank is provided by a maxi-jet 1200 on a remora skimmer, a maxi-jet 400 on a phosban reactor, and whatever kind of pump it is on an emprorer bio-wheel. I want to position 4 loc-line hoses coming into the tank as returns.
What I was planning was to have 3/4" pipe from the mag output go into a scwd, 3/4" hose coming out of each output on the scwd which would connect to a 3/4" loc-line, connected to a 3/4" to 1/2" y-valve, and then have 1/2" loc-line into the tank (total of 4 1/2" loc-line hoses - 2 from each scwd output).
Some threads I've read here and melev's reef site have made me question this plan because of flow restriction. For instance, melev's site states to double the mag's output size on the plumbing to maintain flow rate (which would mean I would need a 1 1/2" pipe out of the mag output). Also, I've read about scwd's cutting down the flow rate (Dave, I'm looking at you).
Which brings me to my long-winded question. Would I be better off designing it with a 1 1/2" pipe off the mag output, splitting that with a 3/4" Y-junction, having that feed 2 scwd's (one off each 3/4" feed from the Y-junction), and then have 3/4" loc-line from each scwd output going into the tank?
Also, regarding loc-line (which I have absolutely no experience with), does it matter what type of nozzle you put on the end? I saw the question raised, but not answered on this thread which made me wonder. I was probably going to go with just a flare nozzle, but if that's not recommended for some reason I'd appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks in advance for any help.
What I was planning was to have 3/4" pipe from the mag output go into a scwd, 3/4" hose coming out of each output on the scwd which would connect to a 3/4" loc-line, connected to a 3/4" to 1/2" y-valve, and then have 1/2" loc-line into the tank (total of 4 1/2" loc-line hoses - 2 from each scwd output).
Some threads I've read here and melev's reef site have made me question this plan because of flow restriction. For instance, melev's site states to double the mag's output size on the plumbing to maintain flow rate (which would mean I would need a 1 1/2" pipe out of the mag output). Also, I've read about scwd's cutting down the flow rate (Dave, I'm looking at you).
Which brings me to my long-winded question. Would I be better off designing it with a 1 1/2" pipe off the mag output, splitting that with a 3/4" Y-junction, having that feed 2 scwd's (one off each 3/4" feed from the Y-junction), and then have 3/4" loc-line from each scwd output going into the tank?
Also, regarding loc-line (which I have absolutely no experience with), does it matter what type of nozzle you put on the end? I saw the question raised, but not answered on this thread which made me wonder. I was probably going to go with just a flare nozzle, but if that's not recommended for some reason I'd appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks in advance for any help.