UV Sterilizer Pump

[roscozman]

We recently obtained a UV Sterilizer for our 125gal. It is a TurboTwist 3x 9volt. Our delima is that we have a CAP 1800 pump in the garage we were going to use as the pump. We looked it up on-line and the GPH is 650. We plan on hanging the UV off the side of the sump so there will be a short distance of tubing.

My question is...
1. Can I put a "T" on the pump to essentially get about half of the GPH?
2. Or should I put a valve to slow the rate of flow?

Thanks.

[Mr Cob]

We recently obtained a UV Sterilizer for our 125gal. It is a TurboTwist 3x 9volt. Our delima is that we have a CAP 1800 pump in the garage we were going to use as the pump. We looked it up on-line and the GPH is 650. We plan on hanging the UV off the side of the sump so there will be a short distance of tubing.

My question is...
1. Can I put a "T" on the pump to essentially get about half of the GPH?
2. Or should I put a valve to slow the rate of flow?

Thanks.

Ross, cutting the flow down by half will apply a lot of pressure on that pump. I personally would not do it...who knows what could happen as a result. Now if the water had to travel a longer distance upward to give you less GPH that's a different story, but to manually force pressure is a bad thing.

Personally I would get a pump that is rated with a much less GPH. A mag 3 would be perfect. A mag 5 works with a foot or two of head hieght travel for the water in order to slow the GPH...you'll want about 100-200gph for more water contact on the UV bulb.

Control valves could be used and I have used them on the same sterilizer but the manufacturer does not recommend this type of installation. I would install them so that they are there...but do not install them with the intention of relying on them.

Not sure I answered your question directly but hopefully I gave some useful information for you to make a more informed decission.

Good luck.

[roscozman]

Thanks for the reply Rob.

The tubing would go up only about 1 foot before reaching the UV. This would only reduce the flow to 600 GPH if I did it on a single tube.

On the "T", I was not going to cut off the other end. One line would go to the UV while the other side of the T would just flow back out of the open end. There would not be any "pressure" applied to the pump. I may be wrong and this may be totally off, but let me know if this scenario will work.

Thanks.

[Mr Cob]

Thanks for the reply Rob.

The tubing would go up only about 1 foot before reaching the UV. This would only reduce the flow to 600 GPH if I did it on a single tube.

On the "T", I was not going to cut off the other end. One line would go to the UV while the other side of the T would just flow back out of the open end. There would not be any "pressure" applied to the pump. I may be wrong and this may be totally off, but let me know if this scenario will work.

Thanks.

Interesting. Not sure this would be very efficeint but I also don't see why it wouldn't work.

Let's see if anyone else chimes in on the subject.

[rpc]

How about mounting the UV above the sump and below the tank and gravity feed it?

No electricity needed and you can control the flow with a inline ball valve.

On my next setup, I plan to gravity feed all that I can.

[Mr Cob]

How about mounting the UV above the sump and below the tank and gravity feed it?

No electricity needed and you can control the flow with a inline ball valve.

On my next setup, I plan to gravity feed all that I can.

What better to try this on than a UV that requires low flow. Cool idea that I know nothing about.

[hobogato]

this is how i feed my calcium reactor, and it works great. just be sure that the intake is in the top 1" - 2" of your tank, so if the power goes out, you dont overflow your sump.

How about mounting the UV above the sump and below the tank and gravity feed it?

No electricity needed and you can control the flow with a inline ball valve.

On my next setup, I plan to gravity feed all that I can.

[roscozman]

Thanks for all the advice. Since I didn't know the outcome of all the modifications, I just went ahead and bought a small pump (Rio 600) and mounted just above the sump. I mounted it about 18 inches above the pump giving me approx 140GHP to the UV.

Also - since we are new at this, I didn't want to encounter any major complications we could not handle. I would rather it cost me a couple of bucks now than a few hundred later.

Thanks.