Surge question, pipe sizing and flow

[Anonymous]

Ok I've been toying with the idea of doing a surge for quite some time... unfortunately I'd like to keep it as cheap as possible, ie try to do with homedepot style PVC pipes. Unfortunately that's going to restrict the size of the surge, which could be a good thing but I had a couple ideas and I wanted to see if anyone had any first hand info on flow rates.

The two biggest sizes I can get are 1.5inch and 2inch pipes. But while playing with the various connectors they have it seems that the only way I can do it is with all one pipe size is if I did 1.5inch, since they seemed to be missing the connector that'd allow me to go through the acrylic in the 2inch size. This got me thinking though, because they did have adapters that go from 1.5inch to 2inch, could I mix and match sizes to get any benifit from flow.

So I'm wondering if I had 2inch pipe inside the surge tank, and 1.5inch to the tank (or vice versa) would this provide any more flow than if it was 1.5 inch pipe the whole way? The only reason I'm thinking this is because if you have a pump, and you reduce the size at the end while you do lose some flow due to backpressure you still have more or less the same flow coming out. But I'm unsure with the siphon principle (should note that's the design I had in mind) and if having a larger intake pipe would make any difference than if I had it all the same size.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't understand your setup or questions. Can you post a picture or drawing?

 

[Anonymous]

Hmm it apparently won't let me add a picture as an attachment.

Basically I want to know if I have some pipe that will be making a siphon.. and I go from a 2 inch pipe to a 1.5 inch pipe, will that effectively be the same flow at the end as a 1.5 inch pipe? or will it have more flow?

 

[liquid]

Hmm it apparently won't let me add a picture as an attachment.

Attachments need to be less than 256 kb in size.

Shane

 

[Anonymous]

It was a quick drawing done in MS paint, that I even saved it as a monochrome bmp. It was less than 256kb in size When I did post it did give me a list longer than me.. ahem.. well a pretty long list of files that can not be done as attachments, bmps were one of said formats.

 

[Anonymous]

liquid has no clue when it come to user-errors

Convert the BMP to JPG, and it will be much smaller in size and the server will let you attach it.

 

[Anonymous]

And as they said.. voila! (??)

 

[Anonymous]

Your flow will be the same using all 1.5 inch. Where are you located? Almost every hardware store stocks plastic pipe and fittings up through 4" dia. You need to find a better supplier. Home Depot?

Also, you may in fact want to try the 3" depending on how fast you want the surge tank to empty.

 

[Anonymous]

Ok thanks that's what I was afraid of. And yes homedepot does stock up to 4" diameter pipe but 1) I would hate to drill a 4" hole through the tank and 2) while they care pieces they tend to not have threaded pieces at that level, and I am not going to try to find a bulkhead that's 4" in diameter.

Looks like surge my get put on the shelf anyways, if I surge into the main tank, too many bubbles to worry about spattering on my lights, and if I surge to the refugium/coral prop I have to deal with the where am I going to put it fact, since with all the plumbing that went to it already I'm really hurting for space with my lights over it, (2- 6500k t8 bulbs).

 

[sawyerc]

There are some good online plumbing stores, for example www.savko.com has a large variety of PVC pipe and fittings at great prices - you might try that if you decide to go with the surge device.