Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi everyone,
I am trying to understand head height.
I know that max head height means no water will be pumped at that height.

Where it is measured from, the pump to the highest point required?

Dale

it's measured from the top surface of the water being pumped

Yep... doesn't matter if you have a 10 m deep tank with the pump sitting on the bottom, the head is from the water surface upwards.

Also, keep in mind that the plumbing adds some restriction so the more plumbing involved, the less flow you will get at a particular head height.

But as they said, the head height is generally measured from water surface to the highest point you are lifting the water.

If I take say 500m of 50mm poly pipe and then:

- plumb each end into two different tanks next to each other
- fill tank one so that the water flows through the poly pipe until both tanks are half full
- then pump from tank one into tank two.
- then add a pump in tank one and pump into tank two.

How do I calculate the height in tank one versus the height in tank two.

I'm missing something here.

As clear as mud ......With a tape measure

head height is calculated from the top of the water to the highest point the pump needs to pump

therefore head height is somewhere along the 500m of tubing

if this means over the lip of the tanks, then that is the head height....10cm, 20cm, 50cm...take your pick

the only other thing which is a pressure factor is friction loss, which was mentioned earlier regarding fittings bends diameter of pipe etc

Have another drink and rise above it , you have two many tanks

I realy wouldent worry about tank one versus the height in tank two, as your tanks are next to each other... I`d be more worried about wasting 500m of 50mm pipe..... that S@#t is expensive
sorry couldent resist

Ha bloody Ha (where is the ruddy sticking your tounge out smilely)

The reason I care is that it helps to design the system component. The length of pipe would be either buried or sunk in a dam so that the water would be cooled as it went through the pipe and then returned to the system. I need to know how to calculate the difference so that I can try different lengths and diameters of pipe, different pumping rates (ie different flow rates through the pipe) etc.

Using the pipe flow calculator if I'm pumping from tank one into tank two and tank two is 1m above tank one then I will get 1840L/min through the pipe.

That seems really low to me and since I don't know how that website calculates everything I'm not entirely sure I can trust it. Hence the question how do I do the calculations?

Buy a better pump?

you only have 1m head height but 500m of 50mm pipe, what kind of pipe, is it poly or pvc, with poly it can bend more pipe suppliers should have friction loss charts that you can calculate from. this is how we work out what pump we are to use or if we have the pump , what pipe to use, which then calculates what flow. depending on how many outlets and what size outlets, these are the principles we use for large irrigation systems, which could come into a large AP system too,Pipe manufacturers,may have the friction loss charts online, I have them already at work, so I don't know if they are online but try they may have them on a pdf somewhere. I hope that is the answer your hunting.

sorry Stuart C I dident realize you had an actual reason for running that much pipe