Alex’s IM 150 EXT

[RandyC]

Might be an @Srt4eric question but can you have a ball valve on the return to act as a restrictor? Then take the return line, hook that into some silicone tubing and fill a 5g bucket to measure actual flow rate like @richiev . Or syphon a known volume out of your tank during a water change and see how long it takes to refill and start the overflow.

Usually running larger pumps at lower flow rates is much quieter and is one thing to think about.

That’s how AC pumps work. They don’t dial down the voltage or the motor speed, they just restrict flow. But it puts more back flow resistance on the pump. Don’t know what this translates into pump wear, but it definitely isn’t going to make it last longer.

 

[MarcosDelgado0]

Might be an @Srt4eric question but can you have a ball valve on the return to act as a restrictor? Then take the return line, hook that into some silicone tubing and fill a 5g bucket to measure actual flow rate like @richiev . Or syphon a known volume out of your tank during a water change and see how long it takes to refill and start the overflow.

Usually running larger pumps at lower flow rates is much quieter and is one thing to think about.

That’s a good point. For my new builds I plan using larger rated return pumps than needed and will run at lower power. I think it’s also better for the pump to be underpowered and be running at 100%

 

[Srt4eric]

Might be an @Srt4eric question but can you have a ball valve on the return to act as a restrictor? Then take the return line, hook that into some silicone tubing and fill a 5g bucket to measure actual flow rate like @richiev . Or syphon a known volume out of your tank during a water change and see how long it takes to refill and start the overflow.

Usually running larger pumps at lower flow rates is much quieter and is one thing to think about.

I use a ball valve as a restrictor on my return lines. I have one pump splitting off to two returns. I have the ball valve on the return closest to the pump slightly closed to even out the flow.

 

[Alexander1312]

Weekly water testing and interim results after stopping the 1) CO2 scrubber, as well as the 2) refugium, and 3) reduced tank turnover flow:

My feeding at the moment looks like the following:
- 3 times daily 1-minute plankfeeder with mostly dry food (TDS+various EasyReef)
- 1 time frozen food (LRS) daily (various)
- 1-2 sheets of seaweed daily (Little fishies)
- Twice a week coral feeding with Captiv8 Integr + Invigor + MIN S from Fauna Marin.

Alkalinity consumption: Down by approx 10%.

CA consumption: Down by approx. <20%.

PH: Down to approx 8.2 max daily.

Nitrate: 3.4 mg/l

Phosphate: 0.06 mg/l

Alk and PH were expected to go down following the changes to the tank.

My main concern is the disproportionate decrease in CA consumption (while things still seem to grow well). I have been slowly dosing various additional trace elements manually to bring them up to target levels, which changed the water chemistry quite a bit. In combination with the other changes, this might have temporarily impacted CA consumption.

Nitrate and Phosphate are lower after (!) removing the cheato from the refugium, which means (as it was my assumption anyway), that my refugium did not do much.

Nitrate is getting too low now for my taste. I will likely double the current coral feeding and see how this impacts nutrients.

 

[BAYMAC]

That’s how AC pumps work. They don’t dial down the voltage or the motor speed, they just restrict flow. But it puts more back flow resistance on the pump. Don’t know what this translates into pump wear, but it definitely isn’t going to make it last longer.

In a case like that, I bleed off excess rather then restrict.

 

[PjFish]

In a case like that, I bleed off excess rather then restrict.

Meaning you recycle water back into the return chamber? Using T after the return pump and a ball valve on the end of that pipe going back into the return chamber or manifold? I used to do that on older pumps worked okay..
I use the same plumping setup as @Srt4eric on the large tank but the ball valve is only for maintenance purposes since I use Variable DC return pumps..
Plus any ball valve or gate valve will reduce the flow even with them wide open since they have a smaller diameter inside unless you use unions/adapters on them so the gate/ball are larger then your pvc return lines…
If your using valves to reduce the flow 50% or so its like diving with one foot on the gas and other on the break at the same time not very efficient…