Reef Central Online Community - View Single Post - Do barbed fittings slow down flow rate? Size of return line?

lucky777 · 03/21/2016, 06:53 PM

So I'm building my first salt setup and my 150 g will be plumbed to a 55 gallon sump in basement. I drilled my 150 and installed a 3 drain bean animal overflow system that I purchased. My return is drilled for 3/4". My overflow box has 1" bulkheads and will drain through sc40 1" standpipes. I have no choice but to use 1" braided vynil tubing for the rest of the run to basement. I thought my return size should be smaller then my drainage lines so that the overflow is always ahead of the return. Now if I use the 1" pvc standpipes fitted with a barbed adapter to fit the vynil hose will I lose a lot of the drain flow due to the smaller inner diameter of the barbed fitting? Does it really matter?

Also would you just use 3/4" hose for return? Someone mentioned adapter to make the return pipe 1" even though the bulkhead is only 3/4" in order to decrease head pressure on pump. The local plumbing shop said to just use 3/4". What do you think?

03/21/2016, 06:53 PM	#1
lucky777 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2016 Posts: 87	Do barbed fittings slow down flow rate? Size of return line? So I'm building my first salt setup and my 150 g will be plumbed to a 55 gallon sump in basement. I drilled my 150 and installed a 3 drain bean animal overflow system that I purchased. My return is drilled for 3/4". My overflow box has 1" bulkheads and will drain through sc40 1" standpipes. I have no choice but to use 1" braided vynil tubing for the rest of the run to basement. I thought my return size should be smaller then my drainage lines so that the overflow is always ahead of the return. Now if I use the 1" pvc standpipes fitted with a barbed adapter to fit the vynil hose will I lose a lot of the drain flow due to the smaller inner diameter of the barbed fitting? Does it really matter? Also would you just use 3/4" hose for return? Someone mentioned adapter to make the return pipe 1" even though the bulkhead is only 3/4" in order to decrease head pressure on pump. The local plumbing shop said to just use 3/4". What do you think?