multiple tanks on 1 sump

eaglesandfish

eaglesandfish

AC Members
Nov 12, 2007
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Porter TX
I am drilling several tanks to put on 1 large sump. The total water volume will be about 200 gallons. I am still working on plumbing issues, but my question is... What pump should I use. I want something quiet. The sump will not be hidden. Any thoughts or advise would be great. Thanks.
 
Are you going to use one pump into a manifold to flow all the tanks? I have multiple tanks on one sump but I use separate pumps for each tank. I was going to use only one pump, but eventually I decided adjusting flow rates between all the tanks would be a real pain, and if the pump died, all the tanks would have no filtration vs. with separate pumps, I usually have an extra one around so if one pump died, the rest of the tanks would be unaffected.
 
I had not considered that. That gives me something else to think about. It will be 4 tanks and the sump. I was trying to minimize the amount of equipment I am using. Mabey I could use 2 pumps, each feeding 2 tanks.
I had planned to use one large pump and put ball valves in the return lines to control flow to each tank.
 
I understand your desire to minimize equipment (visibility & expense) but I believe sploke's aproach of redundancy to be safer & less costly even if the initial investment is a bit greater. 'T'
 
So, this is kind of what I do for a living

<----petrochemist


I don't want to sound all snotty, just trying to say that my experience might bet more beneficial than the average joe.

I'd go with 4 pumps, 4 different lines. In the end you'll still have less equipment, but I think you'd really appreciate it in the end.
 
Thanks for the advise. How about pump choice. I am probably going to go with 2 pumps. I will plumb them so that if one goes down, I can divert flow from the other to all 4 tanks unitll I replace the bad one. The tanks will be a 60, 40, 30, 30, and a 30 sump.
 
What kind of filtration are you planning? If you're doing a sump, I would go for a wet/dry. I'd shoot for 600-800gph after taking head loss into account. Are you looking for submersible or external pumps? I like the Mag Drive pumps for submersibles, they are good quality and reasonably priced.
 
Still thinking filtration, but most likely wet/dry. I would also like to use submersable pumps, but I am not rulling out external pumps. Which would be more quiet. I was thinking submersable would be quieter.
 
I've never used a high-quality external pump so its hard for me to compare. I'd probably go with two Mag7s or Mag5s
 
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