Plumbing, pumping and GB questions

[AJ Grottke]

Hey i had another question or two if u have some time :)   Im setting up my system with 2 100gal FT's and 1 120gal sump tank going to 250 gal of GB.  I am running the water in the sump tank to 90 ft. of nft channels.  My questions are what size pump and plumbing should i use for the pump in the sump (4ft head needed) and for the pump going to nft (8ft head needed).  I was looking at quiet one 4000 pumps would those be suitable? For plumbing size i was thinking 1.5" pvc from the sump to the FT. 2" pvc overflow from FT to GB. I was thinking either 1" or 1.5" pvc to and from the nft channels, not sure. Do my pvc sizes seem accurate? Also, which type of connections are easier to remove and clean the pipes in case of buildup? Can pipe be pulled out of uniseals if needed, or are bulkhead fittings easier for access to cleaning piping?  On the GB side of things, for indoor applications, what is peoples
opinion on wood&liner compared to pre-made plastic containers? Thanks

[TCLynx]

Any chance of making up a couple diagrams for us and posting it in here as a jpeg?

I think smoother in pictures.

I expect that the quiet one 4000 will provide enough flow for your 200 gallons of fish tank but I would need to go look at the pump curve to make sure you will still be getting enough flow at 8 foot head.

 

It is not easy to pull pipe out of uniseals but if a connection on one side or the other is a union or rubber coupler or just simply not glued, you can probably access everything well enough.

 

I've got 1/2" pvc going to my NFT channels so 1" would be plenty big, you only want a small flow there.  The drain out of the NFT channels should be bigger than the feed into them.

 

for the slow drain from the fish tank to the grow beds, 2" might work depending on exactly how all the other flows are working, you might simply need to plumb a bypass so you can control the inflow and spray the excess water back into the sump tank.

 

will it be a single pump running everything constant?  Or will there be one pump on a timer feeding the fish tank/grow beds for flood and drain and another pump running constant to the nft draining back to the sump?  You want to make sure that you are moving at least 200 gallons per hour and I might suggest that 400 gallons per hour would be even better.

[AJ Grottke]

I tired to make a diagram, but since i am using so much vertical space im afraid ill be the only one able to understand what is what in the diagram loI :)  The pump will flood the GB on a timer 15on/45off. There will be a separate pump running nft 24/7.  Here are my "diagrams".  Im not to good at this on the computer so sry if u cant understand what i trying to show u. (im more of a pencil&paper kind-o-guy)

 

 

 

[TCLynx]

Well it is still good to have a diagram.

 

I would suggest to have the pump feed from the sump tank to both fish tanks at once and have the fish tanks each have their own SLO drain feed the grow bed at two separate places.  You could still have a connector between the fish tanks to make sure they equalize but if you just pump to one fish tank and have it flow to the other one, the second fish tank will always have dirtier water.  Also the double drain would probably keep the water level from needing to fluctuate as much in the first fish tank and provide a little extra safety from overflows or backups in case one of the drains were to clog or slow down for whatever reason.

 

Ok, so the pump feeding to the fish tanks is only going to pump for 15 minutes per hour, I strongly advise an air pump that will provide at least .25 cmf of air to each of those fish tanks to make sure the dissolved oxygen never gets too low (another option might also be a small constant running pump and spray bars for the fish tank.)  And your pump feeding the fish tanks will need to handle all your flow for figuring fish tank turn over each hour.  So you will need to pump at very minimum, 200 gallons in 15 minutes at (4 ft head?)  I'm guessing this may be a bit less as your head is normally from the water surface in the sump up to where the water comes out of the pipe into the fish tank (unless you are running the pipe up and over doors or something?)  But if we make sure the pump will provide the needed flow at 4' head it will likely account for pipe and connections as well.  So looking at the pump curve, the Quiet One 4000 (QP14 from aquatic ecosystems) might just barely support your flow running only 15 minutes per hour.  You could up size the pump to the next bigger model to give yourself some extra capacity or figure you might run the pump cycle like 15 minutes on and a half hour off if the water quality seems to struggle at the bare minimum.

 

I think your pipe sizing should work fine but make sure the 2" outlets from the fish tank over to the grow bed are a bit extra below the top of your fish tank (if the plumbing out of the fish tank is right below the rim, you may risk overflows and if the outlet to the grow bed is not enough below the rim of the fish tank, the water will back up and overflow out of the fish tank as well.)

 

Your plumbing and pump to feed your NFT pipes 24/7 might be able to size smaller since you only need a small flow to the NFT pipes but you will want to make sure the pump will still provide several gallons per minute to your NFT at the height you need.  The Quiet One 4000 pump can certainly provide that flow at 8' with 1" pipe.

 

The other option if you were to only run a single pump would be the quiet one pump constantly pumping to both the NFT and the fish tank and then install an auto siphon of some sort on the grow bed.  This would provide constant aeration to the fish tank and the single pump would be plenty to get the circulation you need when running constantly, you just have to balance flows to get a siphon to work.  In this case, the NFT pipes could drain to either the fish tank, the sump tank or even to the grow bed, what ever is most convenient.