180g CLS Hammerhead?

[tundra reef]

hey folks. i have a 180g that i want to get rid of the powerheads. i was thinking of running a sequence hammerhead running a closed loop system. there would be a minimum of 6 outlets, with some of those likely splitting into two.

i was thinking of running 1.5" flexible tubing with t's going to lock-line adaptors so that i can adjust/change direction of flow. there will be valves to adjust flow at each outlet.

i wanted to eliminate the powerheads all together and run the hammerhead as the only source of circulation. trying to reduce energy consumption is the main goal (hammerhead rewired as 240v). is the hammerhead going to be too powerful? is there such a thing as too much circulation?

thanks for any advice!

peace......jason

[Bender 2]

What are you keeping in the tank? I have a Dart and an O/M 4-way on my 180. All of the four outlets are split into two for a total of eight outlets. It provides very good flow but not what I would call crazy. If you are going for all SPS I don't think the hammerhead would be too much for your tank. If you are looking to do softies and LPS it may be tough to find a calm spot for them.

[nyvp]

try using two darts instead of one hammerhead. you will have more flow, less wattage, redundency, more outlets.

[Hop]

Originally Posted by nyvp

try using two darts instead of one hammerhead. you will have more flow, less wattage, redundency, more outlets.

I was just going to suggest this

Two darts and two OM 4-ways would make for an incredible random flow pattern

[Fly Guy]

Originally Posted by nyvp

try using two darts instead of one hammerhead. you will have more flow,.

Originally Posted by Hop

I was just going to suggest this

Two darts and two OM 4-ways would make for an incredible random flow pattern

This isnt true.

I think the head loss will be similar if you ran two standard CLS's each with 3 or more outlets, than a OM, but for kicks Ill just talk about the OM.

Given an average OM 4 way set up with a common drum configuration cut 2 ports open, and two 90's on each output line(assuming you arent splitting the four ports to multiple outlets as if you are you will lose even more), you will be getting somewhere in the neighborhood of roughly 2200 gph of flow from each dart and OM 4 way for a total of 4400 gph running two of them. If you are an inefficient plumber it could be even less than that.

Many people running darts and their OM 4 ways are getting a whole lot less flow than they think and say they are as they assume that a CLS has no head pressure affecting it. While it may not have any head loss due to gravity, it surely has headloss due to friction, and OM units and the associated plumbing required certainly has some of that. Simply start counting 90's being used at any given moment and you will see that the hammerhead can clearly move more water than 2 Darts on any OM set up. If you start splitting ports and reducing plumbing sizes on the way to the tank it just gets worse for the dart from there.


There is some more complex friction loss as the drum spins that I couldnt begin to figure out exactly how much head loss it adds.........I wouldnt even be surprised If Paul couldnt precisely answer that question.

Throw a Hammerhead on one 4 way or an 8 way with similar average plumbing scenarios you will be getting roughly 5100 gph of flow.


Tundra reef, as far as you wondering if the hammerhead is going to be to be too much??

I use a hammerhead wide open on my 90 , and a hammerhead AND a barracuda on my 225.

You should defintely buy the hammerhead, you can always taper it back with a ball valve on the output side. But you cant make a dart or a barracuda pump more.

[Hop]

Very true. I was pointing toward my set up which had 2.5 open ports at a time. Also my Dart with headloss was running a nice 111 watts My Barracuda with approximately 13' of headloss was pulling more than the advertised 325 watts... I was also thinking noise as my dart was quiet, but not my barracuda

[Tigger240]

im very unhappy with twin darts on a cl on my 180. I think that maybe an om would be needed to make me happy with it, so the extra pressure would move more water, but definatly not happy at all. Ive got 4 outlets, 2 per dart.

[RealFishy1]

I'm currently running the hammerhead on my 230 gal reef , its running my DOC 450 skimmer . I have (2) 1inch pipes that Y off into 3/4 lock line . the pump is very powerful , I don't think you will have a problem with what your trying to do. I also think that the hammerhead pump is the quietest pump I have run to date.