full siphon into scrubber

[WORLDCITIZEN]

Hey everybody new here on nano reef, but have been reefing for 5 years now. Im building my dream tank right now its a 24x24x12 shallow with a herbie overflow(return and drains are all 3/4in) any thoughts on running a full siphon into a vertical scrubber 6x8in? Thank you!

[Benny314]

The rule of thumb is not to interfere/Tee off a full syphon drain. It messes with the way the drain works and can make it unpredictable and unstable (drawing to much or to little randomly).

Best bet is to over size your return pump and feed the scrubber off a tee or manifold on the return side.

You need even flow over the screen in the scrubber and that's easiest to control from the return as opposed to the drain.

[WORLDCITIZEN]

The rule of thumb is not to interfere/Tee off a full syphon drain. It messes with the way the drain works and can make it unpredictable and unstable (drawing to much or to little randomly).

Best bet is to over size your return pump and feed the scrubber off a tee or manifold on the return side.

You need even flow over the screen in the scrubber and that's easiest to control from the return as opposed to the drain.

well I wouldnt want to lose any head pressure from the return running it back to the scrubber. the main drain siphon would be two 45 elbows into a 90 into the scrubber, its maybe a foot to foot and a half distance from the bulkhead to the top of the scrubber.

[Benny314]

well I wouldnt want to lose any head pressure from the return running it back to the scrubber. the main drain siphon would be two 45 elbows into a 90 into the scrubber, its maybe a foot to foot and a half distance from the bulkhead to the top of the scrubber.

 

Just don't do it, it doesn't matter how it's plumbed it will be a pain in the ass later on. You'll be feeding your scrubber with no pre-filtering so any large debris can and will clog it which will be the same as blocking the drain and stop the DT draining and you'll suffer angry wife syndrome for flooding the house lol (with a herbie your emergency drain should prevent a flood but I'd never want to rely on the emergency).

 

To compensate for taping off the return just run a bigger pump, or if you really don't like that idea, run a second feed pump just for the scrubber.

[Benny314]

A thought occurs......... what sort of scrubber are we talking about?

 

I'm assuming (possibly wrongly) your talking about a waterfall scrubber with a mesh screen suspended in front of a light source with something (a slot or rain bar type setup) making the water flow evenly over the screen.

However if it's an old school slope trough with a light over it the unfiltered water issue isn't going to clog it's spray bar/slot, but your screen will collect debris.

[WORLDCITIZEN]

yeah its a waterfall style scrubber 6in wide I wanted to post a picture of it but couldnt figure out how to haha but i figure if I cut the spray bar slot a little wider than the recommended 1/8" i should be fine... Im just a cheap bastard and dont want to have to buy another pump for the scrubber lol

 

A thought occurs......... what sort of scrubber are we talking about?

 

I'm assuming (possibly wrongly) your talking about a waterfall scrubber with a mesh screen suspended in front of a light source with something (a slot or rain bar type setup) making the water flow evenly over the screen.

However if it's an old school slope trough with a light over it the unfiltered water issue isn't going to clog it's spray bar/slot, but your screen will collect debris.

[gulfsurfer101]

Nope just nope! Your going to have overspray all over the place in your stand and possibly flooding your tank is nothing you want to deal with. Just buy a cheap ass pump from harbor freight for seven bucks and run a sperate pump or just don't build one at all. Never run anything that had the possibility of clogging up on your full siphon channel.

[gulfsurfer101]

I built this one for under twenty bucks. If you like I can build one for you for 35 shipped. Cost of labor and gas to get to the po isn't cheap these days lol!