175 & 72 Reefs plumbed into one fish room-need advice

[iverson387]

I currently have a 175 gallon bowfront reef and a 72 gallon bowfront. I just moved into a new house and have a room in the basement about 10x12 with a drain in the floor which i will use for my fish room.

I plan to plumb both tanks into this room running off one sump. The 72 bowfront will be upstairs on the 1st floor and the 150 bowfront will be in the basement about 15 ft from the fish room. So far i have moved my 72 over and started with new water and sand. I will move the rock over that was in there previously. Right now it is running on a canister filter until i get the sump setup. Then i will move over the 150g and plumb it in.

My main questions are on plumbing and suggestions on pumps. So far i picked up a 75Gallon plastic tank for the main sump. This is so i could change 50 gallons of water easily without siphoning from any of the tanks. I also picked up two 55 gallon plastic drums for ro water and salt water mixing. I will be installing a sink in the fish room and hooking up the ro/di to a float valve and then using an ato connected to the sump.

Now i need reccomendations for pumps and how to plumb the sump. The 72 gallon will need a pump to go up about 12 feet to the tank. The 150g will only need to go up about 6 feet but will have about 10-15 ft horizontal run. The will both still be reef tanks. I have a 20 gallon glass tank that i will be using for a refugium and another 20 which will be the frag tank. I also have a 30 gallon acrylic sump which i was conteplating plumbing in to fill with extra live rock (or just put the rock in the bottom of the 75 gallon sump?) I think i would rather keep it seperate so i dont have any detrius going into the pumps. What would be the best way to lay this out? How do i plumb the tanks so the flow is not too much for the sump. I would also like to run some filter socks (not all the time but when i feel necessary so i would like to build it in to use as needed)


Here is the current equipment list i have and i am planning on using.

Running off sump-

octopus dnw-250
calcium reactor octopus (not sure on the model have to get it from the old house)
aquacontroller 3 - need a dc8 if anyone has one
ato
ro/di 5 stage
phosban reactor
carbon reactor
2-1000watt heaters


I also have alittle giant pump currently on my 175g but was wondering if i could use it for either tanks still. It is a little giant 3-MDQX-SC .


175 g tank

8x80w t5ho icecap
2 koralia 4 powerheads
1 koralia 3 powerhead

72g tank
2x150w mh and 4x65watt cf (looking to change out for t5ho)
2 koralia 4 powerheads


Im going to put up some pictures and some sketches later but throw out some ideas/threads for plumbing if you have some like my setup. Thanks

 

[iverson387]

Here are a few pictures of the fish room. I am trying to get an idea of the plumbing/layout. The room still needs to be painted which i should have done midweek after i finish drilling the holes in the wall/ceiling for plumbing. I plan to add a sink as well but will do that later. Not sure how to do the plumbing so throw out some ideas.

Here is the 72 gallon which is on the 1st floor directly above the fish room. It is currently running with cured rock i have had for years, new water/sand and off a canister filter to clear it up until i get the sump running. I will be transfering my coral from my 175 bowfront to here so i can move it to its new location.




This next pic is the location of the 175g bowfront which is in the basement a few feet away from the fish room. Behind the wall is the stairs then the fish room so i will run the plumbing through here.




Here are a few pics of the fish room and the layouts i was messing with. The black tank will be the final sump (75g). The acrylic tank (30g) will be a live rock basin and will double as a frag tank. The glass tank is a 20g refugium.







Here you can see the whole in the ceiling for the plumbing of the 72g bowfront on the 1st level.




Here you can see where i started to put the hole in the 12" thick concrete/brick wall where the plumbing will run through for the 175g bowfront.
The fish room was an extension so i am going through the original foundation wall.











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I need to choose a pump for the system (1 or 2 ?) so i can start plumbing it next.

 

[Camel413]

I am doing something similar. I am running 2 display tanks (both upstairs) to a basement sump. I am unsure of how I want to make my sump. Originally I was going to use 3 55 gallon tanks but dont think I will get the flow I want.

Right now I am tossing around the idea of using one 55 tank for skimmer fuge and then draining that into a big brute trash can with my return pump in the bottom. This way I can do water changes without taking the system offline.

I cant suggest pumps as I am looking around myself. A question that might help both of us: what is the big difference between the Japanese and American motor pumps? Is one more powerful, quieter, efficient?

 

[qy7400]

The 75G may be a little small for 2 tanks, figure both tanks and plumbing will back drain around 30 gallons when the power goes out; adding the frag/fuge/rock tank will only increase that number, if you added rock to the sump the water volume in sump may be pretty low.

Are you planning one pumps for everything? If so I’d look into something like the Barracuda pump, that Little giant will only be moving 450GPH at 12’; good for the 72 but not for both. Since the Barracuda is a little oversized you should be able to use that pump to feed both tanks and a few media reactors. As far as plumbing the tanks, keep the drains at least 1 ½ on both. The returns keep the main line at 1 ½ and use reducing Ts where needed.

1000W heaters are too much draw for the DC8/EB8, they have 5A limit per outlet. You’ll need to use an EB4 or expansion socket.

 

[iverson387]

i dont plan on putting any live rock in the 75 gallon sump i will put it in the 30gallon which will be above it. Do you think the volume will still be too low? I will look into the barracuda pumps. I will definitely be running 1.5 " pipe.

 

[qy7400]

The 75 as just a sump with baffles should be OK, keep the volume under half and you should be good. I have a 75G with built in fuge and skimmer zone on a 120 with a Snapper for the return/feed and works well but I only back drain about 15 gallons on power loss.