drain... 'tee off' or 2 separate lines

Jandree22 · 06/28/2008, 12:42 PM

I'm drilling my 75 and putting in 2 1" bulkheads for drains. I bought all my plumbing to be 1" for both the drain and return lines.

I planned to take the two drains into a Tee as shown in the attached image below, but I'm worried about that lowering my drain flow capacity now. My return pump is an Iwaki 30RLT pushing up from the basement, and I figured approx 400gph after head loss. I understand a 1" drain typically yields 600 gph, so I wasn't sure how Tee'ing two 1" lines into 1" line down to the sump would affect the flow. I imagine it'll be plenty over the 400gph return, but still I'd rather have a margin of safety of 2 or 3x the flow down through the drain.

Do you think I'm okay to Tee the two lines together to only run one to the basement sump, or, should I keep each drain line separate the whole way down to maximize drain flow? I'd rather consolidate as much plumbing as possible to minimize cutting into the wall, but if it will make a significant difference running two independent drain lines the whole way, I'll do it.

thanks

ChuckLawson · 06/28/2008, 12:47 PM

Running two separate lines prevents you from having a single point of failure -- I caught one of my tanks with a single drain line about 1/4" from overflowing last month because a snail managed to beat all of the odds and protections, and jammed the drain.

From here out, every tank I plumb will have two separate lines all the way to the sump, just because weird things happen...

LobsterOfJustice · 06/28/2008, 03:59 PM

I agree - aside from the fact that it will slow down your flow, it is great to have a backup and you have the perfect opportunity for it.

06/28/2008, 12:42 PM	#1
Jandree22 Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Middletown PA Posts: 762	drain... 'tee off' or 2 separate lines I'm drilling my 75 and putting in 2 1" bulkheads for drains. I bought all my plumbing to be 1" for both the drain and return lines. I planned to take the two drains into a Tee as shown in the attached image below, but I'm worried about that lowering my drain flow capacity now. My return pump is an Iwaki 30RLT pushing up from the basement, and I figured approx 400gph after head loss. I understand a 1" drain typically yields 600 gph, so I wasn't sure how Tee'ing two 1" lines into 1" line down to the sump would affect the flow. I imagine it'll be plenty over the 400gph return, but still I'd rather have a margin of safety of 2 or 3x the flow down through the drain. Do you think I'm okay to Tee the two lines together to only run one to the basement sump, or, should I keep each drain line separate the whole way down to maximize drain flow? I'd rather consolidate as much plumbing as possible to minimize cutting into the wall, but if it will make a significant difference running two independent drain lines the whole way, I'll do it. thanks __________________ Tank Info: 120g

06/28/2008, 03:59 PM	#3
LobsterOfJustice Recovering Detritophobe Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Cary, NC Posts: 7,443	I agree - aside from the fact that it will slow down your flow, it is great to have a backup and you have the perfect opportunity for it. __________________ If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. I remember when zoanthids were called things like "green" and "orange" and not "reverse gorilla nipple." Current Tank Info: 180g reef with all the bells and whistles

06/28/2008, 12:47 PM	#2
ChuckLawson Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Plano, TX Posts: 383	Running two separate lines prevents you from having a single point of failure -- I caught one of my tanks with a single drain line about 1/4" from overflowing last month because a snail managed to beat all of the odds and protections, and jammed the drain. From here out, every tank I plumb will have two separate lines all the way to the sump, just because weird things happen...