max head rating....

[kewlkatdady]

on power heads....

means what exactly?

I'm trying to determine the head length on my UGJ's...

What is head rate/length?

[ElijahTurtle]

It's the maximum distance from the pump that flow will be effective. Usually it's speaking in vertical terms. If it says 2ft that means it can pump a consisten flow 2ft vertically above it's position.
This info is important when plumbing under the tank or in a pond where you will have the intake several feet from the output.
Somedays gravity just sucks.

[kewlkatdady]

so is this a 0" head length?
http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i134/kewlkatdady/ugj.jpg

the power head will sit right on top of this....

[AndrewH]

Yeah, head is vertical, but pumping horizontal will also make that number come down a bit but it's minimal loss even over several feet, like maybe 1 or 2 gph less on a 25' horizontal run. Also comes down to what the pump's rated head pipe diameter was when tested. If the pump's rated head pgh is at 1" piping, you won't get full rating if you use 3/4" piping. Also the more Tees, Y's and Elbows inline the lower the gph with be. I think 0' head also referes to the max gph that pump can go, but the gph might be slightly higher than 0' head if you don't have any piping connected to the pump (just depends on how they tested it to get their numbers).

I came across a head calculator for different pumps one time. Give me a while and I'll try to hunt it down for ya.

Head Loss Calculator (http://www.reefcentral.com/calc/hlc2.php) (found it)

(regarding you're picture)
If the pump's output is connected to the pipe sticking up (I assume your UGJ system) it is 0' head.

[ElijahTurtle]

I'm glad Andrew was able to give a better example. I didn't have any time to explain better last night. I'm having to learn all this junk now that I'm trying to add a SW tank to my little world too
:headscratch:

[kewlkatdady]

well with that Rio....I should be buzzing out around 140 GPH out of each jet....

I may add another Jet to bring that down to about 107 GPH per jet...

Thanks for the link Andrew... see you around lunch time.

[AndrewH]

I'm glad Andrew was able to give a better example. I didn't have any time to explain better last night. I'm having to learn all this junk now that I'm trying to add a SW tank to my little world too
:headscratch:

Yeah when I was looking into a wet/dry setup I asked lots of questions and did lots of research. So the sump of the SW tank will definitely be effected by all these numbers etc.

well with that Rio....I should be buzzing out around 140 GPH out of each jet....

I may add another Jet to bring that down to about 107 GPH per jet...

Thanks for the link Andrew... see you around lunch time.

Dang, 140 gph sounds about right, but I've never seen a system setup that had the gph listed. I guess it'll be a trail and error type of thing.

Yeah, adding an extra jet will work, but that pump comes with a flow control valve, so that might be an easier option since you already have everything setup.