Basement Sump Design with Reeflow Blowhole 1450 pump?

Cichlid Guy · 05/21/2013, 10:02 AM

Hi,

I'm replacing my main display tank with a new 6' 135 and am designing the drain and return lines to cycle through a new 100 gal basement sump setup. I have a couple of questions:

1. Anyone have experience using the Reeflow Blowhole 1450? I'm a bit puzzled on mounting, as there are no mounting holes. I'm thinking I will secure it by way of the pipe connections with a rubber pad secured below it. Any better suggestions?

2. The cool thing about these pumps is they are quiet, powerful, handle pressure applications well, and my favorite feature ... they have 3 power settings Low, Med, High. With these settings I am hoping to achieve 950/700/450 gal/hr flow rates. I'm debating the size of the pipes for both the return and the drain lines. My current thinking is:

Return: 1" or 1.25" pvc (amazing how much better flow is with 1.25" pipe)
Drain 1: 1" to run at full siphon (to keep it quiet), maybe 1.25"?
Drain 2: 1.5" backup drain, either not used or trickle when system is tuned.

Problem is testing the different pipe sizes is costly, time consuming, and expensive. Better to pick what I think will work and go with that. I've read up on how much flow a 1" pvc pipe can handle and I think with the 9' drop I'll get plenty of flow, with a gate valve at the outlet to tune it down if needed.

BTW I have put together performance data for the 3 blowhole pumps at 3 different speeds (9 pump selections total) which are available as pumps.xml for the pump & pipe size calculator. Happy to share that with anyone interested. Seems to work well but until I install I won't be sure of how close the calcs are to actual performance.

05/21/2013, 10:02 AM	#1
Cichlid Guy Registered Member Join Date: May 2013 Location: West Hartford, CT, USA Posts: 6	Basement Sump Design with Reeflow Blowhole 1450 pump? Hi, I'm replacing my main display tank with a new 6' 135 and am designing the drain and return lines to cycle through a new 100 gal basement sump setup. I have a couple of questions: 1. Anyone have experience using the Reeflow Blowhole 1450? I'm a bit puzzled on mounting, as there are no mounting holes. I'm thinking I will secure it by way of the pipe connections with a rubber pad secured below it. Any better suggestions? 2. The cool thing about these pumps is they are quiet, powerful, handle pressure applications well, and my favorite feature ... they have 3 power settings Low, Med, High. With these settings I am hoping to achieve 950/700/450 gal/hr flow rates. I'm debating the size of the pipes for both the return and the drain lines. My current thinking is: Return: 1" or 1.25" pvc (amazing how much better flow is with 1.25" pipe) Drain 1: 1" to run at full siphon (to keep it quiet), maybe 1.25"? Drain 2: 1.5" backup drain, either not used or trickle when system is tuned. Problem is testing the different pipe sizes is costly, time consuming, and expensive. Better to pick what I think will work and go with that. I've read up on how much flow a 1" pvc pipe can handle and I think with the 9' drop I'll get plenty of flow, with a gate valve at the outlet to tune it down if needed. BTW I have put together performance data for the 3 blowhole pumps at 3 different speeds (9 pump selections total) which are available as pumps.xml for the pump & pipe size calculator. Happy to share that with anyone interested. Seems to work well but until I install I won't be sure of how close the calcs are to actual performance.