Puzzling undercurrent problem - what do you think?

[divinekoncepz]

Soo...I built this UC. it seems in theory to me perfect but I am having issues with plumbing i suppose. So the return line goes filter, mag drive, chiller, control bucket. No water makes it from the pump back to the return bucket. Earlier, i thought it wasn't enough pump (700gph) so i upgraded to the 950gph. Still nothing. I have plumbed in a on/off with garden hose attachment that would serve to use the pump to vacate all the water in the system out the hose come time to flush. This is just above the pump outlet and before the chiller. I tested the drain and water shot out unrestricted. I disconnected the chiller and ran a garden hose in the inlet and water came out of the outlet unrestricted. Finally, i ran water through the plumbing that would have been from the outlet of the chiller and back to the control bucket...it ran through unrestricted. I'm pretty stuck at this point...my only other thing to deduct is that the filter may be restricting the flow somehow but i placed it where current culture does in their 6 planter...see my pics for more clarification.

 

[StonerJ]

Re: Puzzling undercurrent problem ... what do you think?

It's hard to tell the size of the piping you're using at the different points in the system, but I wouldn't route the entire UC flow through the chiller. Chiller lines are pretty small compared to the main plumbing for the system and I would think that the reduction in flow might be hurting you. I would instead put a small submersible pump (250gph) into your reservoir and then using that, loop thru your chiller and back using 1/2" or 3/4" tubing as necessary.

ie, you may just have too many obstacles within your UC loop to get sufficient flow rates. Just a guess....

 

[divinekoncepz]

I ended up plumbing the 700 on the output of the chiller to the controller and it's flowing good now. Thanks for the input