Plumbing Dosing Pump lines directly into Return line, Horrible Idea?

[spiderman097]

I was reading an article on reefcentral about how if you have your dosing pump outputs to close to the pump that feeds your gfo, the gfo will absorb the calcium carbonate and gunk the system up. But my return pump feeds my GFO reactor through a manifold.

So, I decided to plumb the dosing pumps directly into the return line AFTER the manifold that feeds the GFO and carbon reactor. I attached checkvalves to them to help with the pressure caused by the return line. But is this a horrible idea? Will this work? Here is a picture of the setup to help.

[Acroholic]

You have yourself a flood waiting to happen with that set up the way it is. Just a push on check valve between a pressurized line? Hope that tubing doesn't slip off the check valves on either side. Your floor will flood.

I would never hook it up that way. Have your reactors empty into the sump.

[spiderman097]

But I glue'd them! And the reactors do empty into the sump. It's just the dosing pumps hooked up to the pressurized pipe

[ddaddy2420]

Why wouldnt you put on any control valves on your manifold header for control of the different dosing lines or whatever you have coming off there? And when you say you glue'd them, do you mean you glue'd the pvc portion of the push on pieces? Or you actually glue'd the tubing going into the push on connection? I agree 100% with acro, you have a major accident waiting to happen there. Not trying to rip on you but you should really think that setup through, we are only trying to help.

Edit:
Oh nm i see what you are referring to, you glue'd the tubing to the check valves, is that right? I still think having tubing with no kind of control on something like that is a bad idea but thats just my opinion. If you had a problem with just one of the dosing lines how would you fix it without shutting your entire return down?

[heathlindner25]

Off subject, but is that receptacle in the background gfci protected? when water starts shooting out of that sucker from everywhere you would like that to trip...lol

[Seth The Wine Guy]

Yikes!
Nothing good can come of that.

[Ripped Tide]

The pressure from your return is going to be way higher than the pressure from the dosing pump.

I don't think it will even function right.

[EnderG60]

It depends what kind of dosing pump you have. If its a 2 roller one then no it will not work, those check valves will fail. If its a 3 or 4 roller it will work IF you do not have a high pressure pump.

I have seen this done a few times for automatic feeders.

Is it a good idea NOOOOOOOO

[Silver Surfer]

The only way I would do what you are trying to do, is to use a high pressure dosing pump. I know stenner makes one that hooks up to pool pumps for dosing chemicals. But that too is probably a bad idea in an aquarium setting.

[Ripped Tide]

Just to throw this out there, if you used a Venturi where the dosing pump lines enter the manifold, it may work with a weak dosing pump. But there in lies a whole new problem.... If you have a very high powered return, you might pull the dosing solution through. You would need an automated solenoid instead of a check valve. But then, of course, the solenoid could potential fail.


Consult Murphy before doing anything!

[CedzAquAddiction]

Hey, Man. You can easily make a manifold from some extra PVC and some T-fittings. Should definetely have some way to control the flow as well. A simple ball valve on each of the outputs will suffice. If you don't feel like doing all of that, check out this link...

http://flexpvc.com/cart/agora.cgi?product=PVC-Manifolds

Make sure you get a gfci outlet too, Man...

Best of luck!!!

[spiderman097]

Hey, Thanks everyone for the responses. I was kind of iffy on it when I constructed it, that's why I posted it here. I really appreciate all the feedback, I wanted to know if it would work in theory. But since it won't even work in theory, I'll just plug up the T's.


Thanks for saving my floor, and my house!

[JeF4y]

In case you second guess it, I'll throw in another vote for this being the most creative bad idea I've seen in a long time. =)

[heathlindner25]

Originally Posted by spiderman097

Hey, Thanks everyone for the responses. I was kind of iffy on it when I constructed it, that's why I posted it here. I really appreciate all the feedback, I wanted to know if it would work in theory. But since it won't even work in theory, I'll just plug up the T's.


Thanks for saving my floor, and my house!

and get a GFCI receptacle...lol and I just might save your life

[spiderman097]

Just installed it lol, and I can't believe I wasn't using that before. There's no excuse for not using one after that. It's so easy to install

[Silver Surfer]

Hopefully your "spider senses" don't go off at 3am because of a leak

[spiderman097]

Originally Posted by Silver Surfer

Hopefully your "spider senses" don't go off at 3am because of a leak

You'd be surprised how light you sleep when you hear a splash

[JeF4y]

Originally Posted by spiderman097

You'd be surprised how light you sleep when you hear a splash

LOL... TOTALLY.. If there's one little different sound, I'm wide awake. I just wonder why my ATO ALWAYS runs out of water around 3am.

[Ripped Tide]

Most every night i fall asleep on the couch in the basement. I can't tell you how many times I've woken up to something tank related.... (Filter sock overflow, ATO runs out, sponge clogs, the pump in the mixing container shifts and starts spraying water everywhere)

[Barrettrhoades]

The T's that you have feeding your reactors look like they are threaded fittings. Not sure what kind of putty you have on the first two, but if you want to reuse that manifold, you can get some threaded ball-valves and threaded nipples, and make that manifold controllable. My advice is just have the dosing pump dose on the opposite side of the sump as your pump intake. There should be enough dilution so that it doesn't affect your GFO. But GFO can become useless if it is coated in calcium and carbonates..