1/2 blog, 1/2 overhaul thread
- Thread starter jacksonpt
- Start date
truebeliever71
Premium Member
Lookin' good Jackson!
reefjunkie42
Wrasse junkie
try binghamton industrial supply on court st. they have everything , sch 80, unions, true ball valves. ect
alextheromanian
New member
a little heads up on your piping.
when i drilled my friest tank i ended up doing what you did having the pipe elbow inside the overflow and then either stick horizontally or vertically.
what i noticed was a HORRIBLE sound of sucking gurgling and almost whisteling at the tip of the pipe because of the fact that it was exposed to air.
you want to stick to that design you posted by bean. i ended up having to switch to it and it worked great.
also dont bother too much going idagonally to your sump. heres why. you want an elbow or two to slow down water otherwise it will BOIL in your sump and trust me that creates nothing but ptoblems. you have two holes. i assume one handles flow the other is more of a backup incase of a block. thats always a good thing to have but remember instead of elbowing in you should do a t fitting and then go in while having the breathing tubes extend up wit a drilled cap on them to act as noise silencers.
i hope you figure this out. i did it first without thinking of looking it up on RC and found myself crying after so many failed tries in which i couldnt get the system quiet enough.
a friend of the family payed me to plumb their entire 200gal system as well as set it up and make appropriate mods and this time around i actually got the water to be quieter than a skimmer usually runs and the only bublles boiling end up in a skimmer which now runs pumpless.
i can send you pictures if you wish.
when i drilled my friest tank i ended up doing what you did having the pipe elbow inside the overflow and then either stick horizontally or vertically.
what i noticed was a HORRIBLE sound of sucking gurgling and almost whisteling at the tip of the pipe because of the fact that it was exposed to air.
you want to stick to that design you posted by bean. i ended up having to switch to it and it worked great.
also dont bother too much going idagonally to your sump. heres why. you want an elbow or two to slow down water otherwise it will BOIL in your sump and trust me that creates nothing but ptoblems. you have two holes. i assume one handles flow the other is more of a backup incase of a block. thats always a good thing to have but remember instead of elbowing in you should do a t fitting and then go in while having the breathing tubes extend up wit a drilled cap on them to act as noise silencers.
i hope you figure this out. i did it first without thinking of looking it up on RC and found myself crying after so many failed tries in which i couldnt get the system quiet enough.
a friend of the family payed me to plumb their entire 200gal system as well as set it up and make appropriate mods and this time around i actually got the water to be quieter than a skimmer usually runs and the only bublles boiling end up in a skimmer which now runs pumpless.
i can send you pictures if you wish.
alextheromanian
New member
it looks like a REALLY nice tank by the way keep up the good work!
to mention
ps- forgot you can have the pipes meet in a T that is of a bigger diameter to save some space.
to mention
ps- forgot you can have the pipes meet in a T that is of a bigger diameter to save some space.
jacksonpt
New member
After a few delays, I have some progress. At this point everything is dry-fitted, nothing glued. I figured I'd get some feedback here before I glue things up.
(2) 1.5" drains into the drain/skimmer section of the sump
(1) 1.5" bulkhead fitted to the pump
(1) 1" bulkhead will get a barbed fitting, used for water changes
1" spa flex from pump outlet, through a 1" union, then upsized to 1.5". 1.5" T fitting used to feed media reactor(s), 1.5" spa flex up the back of the tank to a 1.5" T fitting. After the T, 1" spa flex to 3/4" loc-line returns (with individual ball valves).
Once everything is glued up I gotta figure out the best way to anchor the return plumbing to the stand to give it some support, but everything else seems pretty good.
Comments? Suggestions? Criticism? Praise?
The 1" union seems a little restrictive, I may replace it with a 1.5" to keep flow up. Thoughts?
(2) 1.5" drains into the drain/skimmer section of the sump
(1) 1.5" bulkhead fitted to the pump
(1) 1" bulkhead will get a barbed fitting, used for water changes
1" spa flex from pump outlet, through a 1" union, then upsized to 1.5". 1.5" T fitting used to feed media reactor(s), 1.5" spa flex up the back of the tank to a 1.5" T fitting. After the T, 1" spa flex to 3/4" loc-line returns (with individual ball valves).
Once everything is glued up I gotta figure out the best way to anchor the return plumbing to the stand to give it some support, but everything else seems pretty good.
Comments? Suggestions? Criticism? Praise?
The 1" union seems a little restrictive, I may replace it with a 1.5" to keep flow up. Thoughts?
truebeliever71
Premium Member
Everything looks good. I would see about getting a Y union for the return. You're right that the T will be very restrictive and I can see a huge reduction on flow making the pump work harder than it should.
truebeliever71
Premium Member
I think I've seen them at Kovarik Hardware or Grainger.
reefjunkie42
Wrasse junkie
or binghamton industrial supply on court...
jacksonpt
New member
After several delays (2 extended power outages, never see me to have all the right fittings regardless of how many trips I make to lowest, etc) I finally have all the plumbing glued up. I'm going to let everything dry for a couple of days then start filling for a leak test this weekend.
Is that what I think it is? could it be? No... Light at the end of the tunnel???
Is that what I think it is? could it be? No... Light at the end of the tunnel???
truebeliever71
Premium Member
Pics! Let's see the pics!
jacksonpt
New member
More progress...
Somehow I forgot to glue in the unions on the drain lines, so I've gotta cut the drains and glue in the unions today.
The display is filled and the last 20 or so gallons of water are being filtered as I type, so I should be able to finish filling and turn on the pump tonight (depending on when I get around to glueing in the unions).
I may also have to cut down the inside part of the bulkhead the pump is connected to. It's a little closer to the baffle than I would like... not sure if it will affect the flow at all or not, but we'll see.
Plumbing the T4 turned out to be way harder than it should have been. 1" hose fits, but it's REALLY tight. So tight that installing/removing the pump would have put FAR too much strain on the glass. On the return size (outlet), I ended up using my dremel do basically sand down the inside of the spaflex to make the ID slightly larger. I then upsized the plumbing from there. I did basically the same thing on the inlet side, but I used braided vinyl hose instead. I cut a short (~3/4") length of the 1" hose and glued it inside a length of 1 3/8" hose. I then glued that to a PVC bushing which was glued into the bulkhead. I "sanded" out the inside of the 1" hose until it fit snugly on the pump, then hose clamped it down. Hopefully that fits/seals well.
Pics:
Somehow I forgot to glue in the unions on the drain lines, so I've gotta cut the drains and glue in the unions today.
The display is filled and the last 20 or so gallons of water are being filtered as I type, so I should be able to finish filling and turn on the pump tonight (depending on when I get around to glueing in the unions).
I may also have to cut down the inside part of the bulkhead the pump is connected to. It's a little closer to the baffle than I would like... not sure if it will affect the flow at all or not, but we'll see.
Plumbing the T4 turned out to be way harder than it should have been. 1" hose fits, but it's REALLY tight. So tight that installing/removing the pump would have put FAR too much strain on the glass. On the return size (outlet), I ended up using my dremel do basically sand down the inside of the spaflex to make the ID slightly larger. I then upsized the plumbing from there. I did basically the same thing on the inlet side, but I used braided vinyl hose instead. I cut a short (~3/4") length of the 1" hose and glued it inside a length of 1 3/8" hose. I then glued that to a PVC bushing which was glued into the bulkhead. I "sanded" out the inside of the 1" hose until it fit snugly on the pump, then hose clamped it down. Hopefully that fits/seals well.
Pics:
jacksonpt
New member
Ran home at lunch today and glued in the unions. I also filled to sump to see how the baffles worked and immediately got a pretty good stream of water leaking from the pump bulkhead. I drained the water (water change drain worked GREAT!) and will have to look at that tonight.
jacksonpt
New member
Got everything filled and fired up the pump tonight. First thing i noticed was just how smooth and quiet the T4 is, which I love! Second thing i noticed was that the pump has enough pressure to shoot water roughly 10 feet across the room.
Once I remembered to tighten things down and such it all ran pretty well. I ran it for about 10 mimutes with the pump wide open, then just briefly with the various vavles closed to different degrees.
Ive got slight leaks at 3 of the 4 bulkheads, but everything else looks pretty good, though Ill have to wait for everything to dry to double check a few of the fittings.
I can't seem to get the bulkheads tight enough. Or maybe the gasket isnt sealing... any tips?
Once I remembered to tighten things down and such it all ran pretty well. I ran it for about 10 mimutes with the pump wide open, then just briefly with the various vavles closed to different degrees.
Ive got slight leaks at 3 of the 4 bulkheads, but everything else looks pretty good, though Ill have to wait for everything to dry to double check a few of the fittings.
I can't seem to get the bulkheads tight enough. Or maybe the gasket isnt sealing... any tips?
alextheromanian
New member
you may have success cutting a piece of plexy wide enough to vocer atleast 3 inches in radius past the crack and siliconing it completely flat against the cracked pane...it wont leak and it wont let the crack spread....the only thing it would do is make your glass thicker...but unlike glass plexyglass is easy to drill through..you already have your glass part done. be careful not to drill to near an edge...its how i cracked my first sump too.
oh and the crack may have come not from over tightening it may have come from the pressure put on it when you were assembling all the pipes on for gluing. it may have slightly pulled on it just weird.
