Okay, been a long delay. I got the sump up and running and cycled the rock for a couple months so the transition would be smooth. A friend and I spent three days getting the system plumbed in, finally. The run from the sump room to the display tank in the front room is 35 feet. we were figuring we'd have about 80 gallons of water in the lines at any one time. The plumbing under the house was handled by a LFS owner who is a friend. I can't go under the house due to claustrophobia. Another friend, and the head of our local reef club, handled the above ground build.
I bought a brand new dart hybrid gold, with the dual impellars. It comes with the 4200 gph impeller installed and I stuck with that. The pump ended up giving me all the flow I need. I ended up throttling the outlet pressure back by 50% in order not to blow the system away. Damn fine little unit!!
Getting the supplies laid in. Using 1.5" PVC for build.
Pulling all the equipment and sump out. The sump went in when the tank was installed on the stand. The only way we could get it out was to move the t.v. and take the end boards off the stand. We then reinstalled the boards.
The floor was drilled with a 2" hole saw since the outside diameter of the pvc was 1 7/8". I drilled the stand and fed the piping down to him under the house. There is main drain, emergency drain, and supply.
Ooooh pipes coming through!
Plumbing completed under stand. Came out pretty good. Only a couple of small leaks that stopped after a couple hours run time.
Here's the sump as we were making adjustments and purging air out of the lines. It took a while to do this, and then micro adjust the balance.
My buddy Leeds is very knowledgeable about these larger systems and I am grateful for his help. He came and stayed with me for three days to do this! This photo was taken at about 0400 hours.
Here is the sump a couple hours after we finished up. I have yet to install my dosing pumps, and get things permanently arranged. I have yet to move the saltwater mixing station and RODI into the fish room. I'll tackle that on Tuesday and update.
Here is the tank a couple hours after we were done. By doing the build this way I noticed no negative side effects to any livestock. Everyone is out and happy. One cool thing is the front room is now very quiet!! I had gotten so used to the sound of water movement, and three pumps in the sump, with the skimmer perculating that I didn't hear the noise anymore. I can turn the volume back down on the t.v. The only thing I hear now is the slight hum of the LED light fans.
however, the unit is working really good wide open. Once the sump is up and running I'll run it wet, in the equipment chamber.
