closed loop ????

[urban79]

Alright I just did my first close loop on my 150g. And I think its not working. LOL I can spit water faster than its going.

Well to start off. I have 2 inch bulk heads reduced to 1 1/4. The 1 1/4 is ran about foot down and about 4 feet acrossed to a scwd(which is reduce to 3/4). And from the scwd is 3/4 flex tubing to mag 12.(whcih is about 1 foot away from the scwd). that is the return end for both sides

the inlet is about 3 feet of 1 1/4 pipe straight down(open end no skimmer on it yet) then it reduce to 3/4 for about 6 inch to go in to the mag 12

PLEASE HELP BEEN WORKING ALL DAY WITH IT THANKS

[jroescher]

SCWD are not known for being high flow!

[urban79]

Well its said it can do up to 1400 gallons

[JimD]

SCWD are not known for being high flow!

Really? Mines like a fire hydrant on a Mag 12... Since theres no head pressure on a true closed loop, A SCWD would my choice for an inexpensive wave device.

[Ping]

You could make a tempory PVC T and test the closed loop without the SCWD, and see if the SCWD is your primary flow restrictor.

[brewercm]

If I'm reading the diagram right you are going from 3/4 outlets from the scwd to 1 1/4 pvc to 2" outlets. If that is the case you won't look like you are getting much flow. Going up in size on the outlet reduces the pressure of the output, not the volume just the way it looks coming out.

[BIGBIRD123]

There is some serious plumbing problems with this design. You need to use the 1-1/4" for the suction of the pump and reduce it to 3/4" @ the pump and then use 3/4" to the SQWD and for the returns from the SQWD. The changes in sizes is what's causing the problem. Just for a note, when you squeeze the water hose, the water barely comes out the end...same thing here.

HTH
Steve

[urban79]

So I need to make everything 3/4.
I was just reading the pump and it was saying that i need 1 1/2 for max flow

[jroescher]

I have a SCWD, just haven't hooked it up yet. Everything I've read about it say it will reduce flow to about 80%. Some claim a 10% loss, others up to 40%.

You should use the larger pipes as others suggested, and reduce it only at the connections to the SCWD. In my opinion, get rid of 3/4 pipe, except that between the pump and SCWD because it's probably a short distance. And yes, you should be using at least 1 1/2 for flow whenever you can.

Here's something worth looking at: http://www.melevsreef.com/closedloop.html

You also need to put some ball valves in all three pipes so you can take your pump and/or SCWD out without draining your tank.

[GeoB]

I would get rid of all the 3/4". Use ruducers right at the inlets and outlets for the pump and scwd. Don't use a 90 degree 3/4 inch elbow at your pumps inlet. The volume of a 3/4" column of water is a third of the volume of a 1.25" column of water, so it is a lot harder for a pump to push (or pull) water through 3/4" piping than 1.25". If you need the flow to be pushed further in your tank, you might reduce the outlets at the very end to 3/4 inch.

My experience with the SCWD is that it pushes water a max distance of 2 feet in the tank. When you increase the pump size to get the flow to go further, the switching rate increases. I never could get a nice back and forth motion in my tank until I used two scwds on one pump.