Go with 3/4" or 1" return?

gregghia

gregghia

Member
I am going to have three tanks; two 40 gallon and a 65 gallon in a closed loop system. The tanks sit all side by side and the sump and Reeflo are in the middle underneath. I have a Reeflo Dart 3600 pump as the return. (The 40 gal tanks were drilled for a 1" return. The 65 gallon tank was drilled for a 3/4" return). How they were when I bought it. So my question is....
Is it better to step the 65 gallon up to 1" return PVC or step the 40s down to 3/4" PVC? I want the PVC to be all uniform in size. The Reeflo has a 1.5" return outlet.
 
jackri

jackri

Active Member
Why don't you want to mix? Asthetics? (not sure if I spelt that right)
For those size tanks and depending on the distance your pump would probably prefer a 3/4" IMO.
 
natclanwy

natclanwy

Active Member
The size of the returns is going to depend on the number of returns your are going to be using on your setup. With the dart you need to make sure your drains are properly sized also otherwise the pump will cavitate causing excess noise and premature failure.
I recently built a closed loop on a 125g tank and I used two 1.5 drains that flow into a 2" manifold and a 2" return manifold that splits into 5- 1" return each with eductors on them. The flow without the eductors is very strong, but the eductors make a huge improvement to the flow plus they help to disperse the flow a little. I used 1.25" spaflex so that I could maintain a 1" id through the hose barbs also but if I did it again I would use 100% PVC no flex hose.
Here are some pics of the plumbing I used on the closed loop:
CL bulkheads installed:

Reeflo Dart 3600 CL pump

Return and Intake manifolds

Closed loop plumbing installed
 
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