360 in wall - need your help

[teo241]

Wondering if you might offer your opinions on water flow/sumps for my 360 in wall, see pictures below. To be SPS dominated, medium-heavy fish load.

The tank is in place already - 360 gallon - 78 long, 30 width, 36 deep, low iron front glass, on a steel stand. It has two corner overflows, each with two holes, a 1 inch and 1.5 inch, originally meant to be return/drain. The tank is new and hasn't seen water. Sitting unused since February. I have a dedicated room behind the tank for equipment, it already houses my other tanks.

I need your help because I don't want to have 3 - 40 gallon breeders as sumps. I've looked into royal exclusiv dream boxes, MRC custom sumps etc but I'm having trouble getting anything going. I've contacted some custom manufacturers but again, nothing finalized. Part of the problem is me, I'm not savvy enough with a program like sketch up to get a design finalized. I want to do it right the first time.

My dream for a sump is something functional, organized, and if possible clean looking. I want the filtration set up to look as good as the display. Filter socks, skimmer compartment, media reactors, probe hold etc, and then space for a return.

I currently have two reeflo gold snapper/dart pumps to potentially be used as a return but that could change, maybe an internal pump? red dragon? Skimmer is a bubble king superman 250 which is also purchased.

In tank circulation - 2 MP 60s, 2 MP 40s.

I'm looking for criticism, for suggestions. The only thing I can't change is the tank - everything else is up in the air, thanks.

 

[dave.m]

Don't let technology defeat you. Draw the sump with the features that you want on paper - pencil first, then go over it in pen or fine marker.

Scan your drawing into your computer (or take it to some place that has a scanner like Staples, etc.).

Upload this to whatever image server you use (Photobucket, Flickr, etc.).

Point your prospective sump builder to your image and use this as your basis for negotiations.

Dave.M

 

[teo241]

A few more pictures...

 

[whitesquall]

Just my suggestion, I'd have the sump built out of 1\2 glass with 1\4" glass baffles. Not a fan of acrylic sumps, they look great when new but a year down the road when you have to clean them they get all scratched up.... With glass, you can use vinegar and a razor and it will look like new again. A glass sump can be changes to your needs down the road by either adding baffles or removing them. If you have the room and money, have it custom built. If your on a budget get a 55 or 75 gallon standard "non tempered" so you can drill it and go to your local glass shop and get some 1\4" glass and a good glass cutting tool, very easy to cut glass. You could ask the glass shop if they have a scaps that you can make some practice cuts on to get a feel for it, just be careful and use gloves. Hth's

 

[whitesquall]

Oh and make sure to get 100% Silicone type1 tubes, a sharpie to mark the baffle locations on the outside of the sump so when finished you can clean the markings off with a razor.

 

[FFrankie]

Built mine out of glass.
Here is a basic drawing. It's a runway design.

 

[FFrankie]

 

[FFrankie]

I added some covers recently to cut back on evaporation

 

[teo241]

Like the look of glass too, clean, impressive work.

 

[FFrankie]

Bought all that glass for $25 at the habitat for humanity. It use to be shelves

 

[whitesquall]

One more thing, use sand paper on the cut edges to nock them down so they aren't sharp, don't want to cut your hands when you go to clean the sump.

 

[teo241]

Does anyone have any comments about my tentative plan for circulation/flow?

Thanks for the ideas regarding sumps. I see several of these large build threads have used Advanced Acrylics sumps, I may shoot them an email as well.

Thinking I'll probably stay away from glass just because of weight, I want to be able to move the sump out completely from underneath the tank if needed.

The combined acrylic/PVC designs seem to be the latest fad, does anyone have any experience with those?

 

[iced98lx]

2 mp60's and 2 mp40's should be a great starting point for flow honeslty, I'd put the 60's on the ends and the 40's on the back.

 

[teo241]

2 mp60's and 2 mp40's should be a great starting point for flow honeslty, I'd put the 60's on the ends and the 40's on the back.

That's what I was thinking too for the vortechs.

Do you think I'll be ok with 2 x 1.5 inch drains to the sump? Planning about 5 x turnover per hour of the tank through the sump which is about 1800 gph. I'll have to throttle back the reeflo pump a little for that. Plan to T the return line to split it between the 2 one inch returns.

 

[kris101]

teo.
Check out the Neptune Wav pumps. I replaced 2 MP 60's with 2 4K gph wav pumps. Super quiet and way less $ over the MP 60's

 

[iced98lx]

I run a Bean Animal drain type setup (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1541946) which equates (for me) to having a 1inch pipe at full siphon, another open channel, and an emergency backup, it will not flow 1800gph. Perhaps a 1.5 inch setup at full siphon would.

 

[teo241]

teo.
Check out the Neptune Wav pumps. I replaced 2 MP 60's with 2 4K gph wav pumps. Super quiet and way less $ over the MP 60's

Those are nice, already purchased the MP60s though, another thing still in the box.

 

[teo241]

I run a Bean Animal drain type setup (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1541946) which equates (for me) to having a 1inch pipe at full siphon, another open channel, and an emergency backup, it will not flow 1800gph. Perhaps a 1.5 inch setup at full siphon would.

Wish I had the foresight to have the tank built so a beananmial setup was possible, I also would have done a coast to coast overflow, but such is life.

According the the RC calculator you can get 900 gph through a 1 1/4 inch drain, so I hope that combining the two 1.5 inch sides will get me close to 1800 accounting for some required elbows in the drain lines.

 

[iced98lx]

Wish I had the foresight to have the tank built so a beananmial setup was possible, I also would have done a coast to coast overflow, but such is life.

According the the RC calculator you can get 900 gph through a 1 1/4 inch drain, so I hope that combining the two 1.5 inch sides will get me close to 1800 accounting for some required elbows in the drain lines.

Consider running one full siphon (tuned) and one open channel if you really want to hit that number

 

[FFrankie]

OK here comes the age old arguments lol!
Personally I think too fast a sump flow takes away from contact time with filtration.
I have my overflow setup in time with my skimmers flow.
So, no more flow through the sump then 600gph. On my small system. I have 100 gallons gross....