Question on closed loop pump/s

[Aaron143]

Hello there,
So I've been out of the hobby for a few years now and going to be getting back into it. I'm in the process now of planning everything out and not sure what I should do with my closed loop system/s. I have a whole list of tanks that I'm going to use as one big system. My question is, if I have 7 aquariums ranging from 75g-220g and want a closed loop system in/on all of them.....Do I want to tie all of the closed loop systems together and get one big pump? Or do I want to get each tank its own individual pump so I can fine tune them specifically? Thanks for any input!

[Mark Bianco]

I would do a separate pump for each system. My reasoning is simple If something goes wrong with one tank is a problem. If something goes wrong with all the tanks it a catastrophe.

Mark

[BeanAnimal]

Originally Posted by Aaron143

Hello there,
So I've been out of the hobby for a few years now and going to be getting back into it. I'm in the process now of planning everything out and not sure what I should do with my closed loop system/s. I have a whole list of tanks that I'm going to use as one big system. My question is, if I have 7 aquariums ranging from 75g-220g and want a closed loop system in/on all of them.....Do I want to tie all of the closed loop systems together and get one big pump? Or do I want to get each tank its own individual pump so I can fine tune them specifically? Thanks for any input!

Water will seek its own level and drain to the lowest point possible. If your systems are not all on the same level, what happens when the pump is not running? Check valves are NOT a solution.

The system can not be a "closed loop" because there is no way to close the loop between multiple open systems unless each system drains into the next, with the first being the discharge and the last being the suction.

So, one big return pump and multiple aquariums fed by that return pump, with each draining back to a common sump. Friction losses with any reasonable size piping will be significant, but so will mechanical losses in multiple pumps. The most efficient setup will depend on the overall flow rate, that required flow for each system, the distance between the systems, etc.

One pump is one point of failure. I pile of pumps increases the chance of any single failure. Again, you have to look at the goal and sort out the variables.

You can have multiple pumps on a sump that has multiple systems that drain into it. Maybe 3 pumps with 4 aquariums each.

Back to the single large return pump.... Maybe (2) of them in parallel, small enough to simply provide enough flow to make the systems "common" (your goal?) and then a closed loop on each tank, sufficient to provide the majority of its required flow.

[Aaron143]

Thanks guys! Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for the in depth explanation on things, it all makes sense now. I appreciate it greatly...