750 Gallon system plans

jdarr

jdarr

New member
Hey guys, I am just in the middle of planning my 750 gallon system and I thought I'd run something past you guys before I stop dropping cash...

A few key points:
The tank will be 80" x 60" x 26"
there will be two viewing panels (front and right) (fish room enclosing the tank)
coast to coast overflow on the left wall (60 inches)
a 300 gallon rubbermaid sump
super marin 300 skimmer
both closed loops will be fed by 1 dart each
controlled by profilux
profilux dose
130 gallon iso tank for water changes
8 radion x30w pro lights (possibly not enough, but will start with this)
will run carbon reactor, nitrate reactor and rowaphos
QT tank
fresh water reservoir
fish room will be 12 x 13 feet, has electrical, drain, and water supply (and ventilation) already existing
tank will be SPS dominated
I will not be using a calcium reactor or a chiller at this stage... hopefully wont need either...

The stumbling block I am currently dealing with is the closed loop intakes. I really want to avoid large ugly strainers, but obviously understand the need. I came up with the following idea:

Hey fellow fish nerds..., I wanted to get some feedback on an idea I had regarding a closed loop system...

I am planning to have 2 separate overflow boxes in my tank. One with the regular height teeth for water to flow over the weir and supply the main drain to the sump. As water gets pumped into the tank, the water level flows over the weir and drains back into the sump through this regular overflow box... (yeah, pretty straight forward so far)

But then, I want to have another overflow box, same physical height as the other, except the teeth are cut a little lower which supplies the closed loop pump/system... The way I understand this, even if the main sump pump is off and no more water is being pumped back into the tank, the lower teeth in this box should still be low enough to supply the closed loop with enough water... right? It would certainly be a lot cleaner looking than huge strainers (and safer for critters?)

I am not sure if anyone else has tried this, but I wanted to get some feedback before I have my tank built like this as I think this should work...

http://s1109.photobucket.com/user/jpdarr/media/overflowwithclosedloopintake.jpg.html

So if you are looking at the image, you can see the overflow is divided into two separate overflows.
from left to right is as follows:

Main return line
oceans motions A return 1
oceans motions A return 2
oceans motions A return 3
oceans motions A return 4
Closed loop 1 feed line
Closed loop 2 feed line
***divider
oceans motions B return 1
oceans motions B return 2
oceans motions B return 3
oceans motions B return 4
Main Herbie drain
Back up Herbie drain

any thoughts? input?
I will be posting full plans on here soon, just want to iron out a few details..

Thanks
 
If your CLS is not going to route to any type of filtration why do you need an oveflow at all? There is more than one kind of strainer. Have you considered a bulkhead-type strainer? These should be fairly easy to hide behind rockwork.

Dave.M
 
dave.m said:
If your CLS is not going to route to any type of filtration why do you need an oveflow at all? There is more than one kind of strainer. Have you considered a bulkhead-type strainer? These should be fairly easy to hide behind rockwork.

Dave.M
Click to expand...

Hi Dave, thanks for the response... Yes, I have looked a a few different strainer options. Being that the tank will be 60 x 80 x 26, it will be hard to access them if they are under rock and need service (as I hear the strainers can clog). I am also running a considerable amount of flow so the intakes may be too strong for smaller fish, inverts etc... (each strainer will have a 2 inch bulkhead fed to a separate dart). This option you've suggested is certainly not a horrible worst case scenario, but exploring more options if they are out there. Thanks again for the input!
 
Looking at that picture you essentially have a 30" overflow, the other 30" is literally your strainer ;) Why not go through your overflow into the tank and slap a strainer on there? Just 90 off through the overflow as you have shown, but the actual intake of water comes from the tank side not the overflow side. At 80" long I doubt you're going to notice much in the way of your strainer, and you can put it any any height you desire.

Also a question of your returns, I would do a similar thing and go straight overflow for those along the back. And I have to ask, for sake of doing a closed loop are they going to other places in the tank? Just seems like a bit of a waste to have them just shoot from the "back" wall (overflow) towards the front.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Looking at that picture you essentially have a 30" overflow, the other 30" is literally your strainer ;) Why not go through your overflow into the tank and slap a strainer on there? Just 90 off through the overflow as you have shown, but the actual intake of water comes from the tank side not the overflow side. At 80" long I doubt you're going to notice much in the way of your strainer, and you can put it any any height you desire.

Also a question of your returns, I would do a similar thing and go straight overflow for those along the back. And I have to ask, for sake of doing a closed loop are they going to other places in the tank? Just seems like a bit of a waste to have them just shoot from the "back" wall (overflow) towards the front.
Click to expand...

Hi Mike, yes the closed loop will be plumbed throughout the bottom of the tank once I have figured out what I will do with Aquascaping... just not quite there yet ;-).

With regard to going through the overflow and putting on a strainer, I do realize this is an option, I am just hoping to not look at it ;-) With 2 inch bulkheads for the required flow that I am after, I am concerned that the suction will either be too strong for small inhabitants, or too visible for what I am after. It's not too bad of a situation to be in, but looking for a way to not have the direct "suction point" or one of those very large strainers. Each bulkhead will be 2 inches going to a dedicated dart pump...

Thanks for the input!
 
Hi, I am planning a similar type of overflow for my 256 gallon tank. It will be slightly different in that the closed loop side will be in front of the overflow. I am going to make the space between the teeth slightly wider and lower in the first weir to allow more flow through it. The second weir will be higher to catch the surface water.

The overflows will be angled in the corner. I am also running a closed loop and alll my returns will go over the tank wall and between the 2 overflows so you can't see them in the tank. No extra holes in tank for returns. I figure that way I can set the returns up for a tremendous barrell roll effect.
 
69bird said:
Hi, I am planning a similar type of overflow for my 256 gallon tank. It will be slightly different in that the closed loop side will be in front of the overflow. I am going to make the space between the teeth slightly wider and lower in the first weir to allow more flow through it. The second weir will be higher to catch the surface water.

The overflows will be angled in the corner. I am also running a closed loop and alll my returns will go over the tank wall and between the 2 overflows so you can't see them in the tank. No extra holes in tank for returns. I figure that way I can set the returns up for a tremendous barrell roll effect.
Click to expand...

That sounds pretty interesting... Do you have any drawings?
 
Hi. I do have drawings, but for the life of me I can't figure out how to load them on here.
I was trying my hand at sketch-up but I'm not very good at that either. New to the forum, although I have been following several of the amazing tank builds for a couple of years. My posting is very limited as you can see.

It is quite simple to visualize. My tank is 5 1/2 ft X 3 ft. I have 2 -3 in. holes along the back (5 1/2 ft panel ). They are centered 6" from the back and 6'' and 12'' from the side panel. The sump overflow goes between the holes from the side to the back and the other rests an 1 1/2" in frt of it and around the other hole. The frt weir is made to go 3" above the water level to hide the return pipes going over the tank and down between the overflows. I wanted minimum holes in the tank. If the water is rolling too fast over the top I am going to cut a hole in the frt weir and install a flush mount grill. At HD they are in the plumbing section. They come in 2" and 3" sizes. I think they are for furnace vent pipes.

If I figure out how to get drawing up here I will post them.

Bryan
 
69bird said:
Hi. I do have drawings, but for the life of me I can't figure out how to load them on here.
I was trying my hand at sketch-up but I'm not very good at that either. New to the forum, although I have been following several of the amazing tank builds for a couple of years. My posting is very limited as you can see.

It is quite simple to visualize. My tank is 5 1/2 ft X 3 ft. I have 2 -3 in. holes along the back (5 1/2 ft panel ). They are centered 6" from the back and 6'' and 12'' from the side panel. The sump overflow goes between the holes from the side to the back and the other rests an 1 1/2" in frt of it and around the other hole. The frt weir is made to go 3" above the water level to hide the return pipes going over the tank and down between the overflows. I wanted minimum holes in the tank. If the water is rolling too fast over the top I am going to cut a hole in the frt weir and install a flush mount grill. At HD they are in the plumbing section. They come in 2" and 3" sizes. I think they are for furnace vent pipes.

If I figure out how to get drawing up here I will post them.

Bryan
Click to expand...

Cool Bryan, looking forward to checking it out!
 
So, I have been giving this some thought and researching this a bit more (thanks for the nudge Timber77 ;-)) and I am considering ditching the CL for a couple MP 60's. Does anyone run these on a tank this size? Any comments etc? Seems like with the flow rating (7k gallons per hour) would be more than sufficient, but I am curious as to whether or not 2 of these would actually keep detritus in suspension effectively removing dead spots? Any other thoughts?
 
Mark... said:
What is the width on the 250...looks great and deep...
Click to expand...

It will be 80 x 60 x 26(height)

I have taped it out on my floor and I am pretty stoked about the depth! This tank will be as deep as my last tank (250 gallon) was wide lol
 
jdarr said:
It will be 80 x 60 x 26(height)

I have taped it out on my floor and I am pretty stoked about the depth! This tank will be as deep as my last tank (250 gallon) was wide lol
Click to expand...

The 250's looks awesome, in that it seems to go back very far...no back wall jumping out. The new tank will be fun to watch...
 
jdarr said:
So, I have been giving this some thought and researching this a bit more (thanks for the nudge Timber77 ;-)) and I am considering ditching the CL for a couple MP 60's. Does anyone run these on a tank this size? Any comments etc? Seems like with the flow rating (7k gallons per hour) would be more than sufficient, but I am curious as to whether or not 2 of these would actually keep detritus in suspension effectively removing dead spots? Any other thoughts?
Click to expand...

THe most critical part is where you can put them. If you an put them at opposite ends of the tank and have some options on each side....you can probably get a way with it. IMHO you go with a closed loop because you are limited or are trying to hide the visual garbage. For me...(lunatic fringe thread) I went with a CL with 2 mp60 knock offs but the only place I was willing to mount the PHs were on the far back corner on one side where you can not see them. I used the CL to give more flow to other parts of the tank.....

I almost mounted the CL return inside of the overflow, on the bottom...I was going to put the strainer to the INSIDE of the overflow box....I was going to then drill the returns back through the box and have sand cover the pvc...thus no bulk heads in the bottom.... I didnt do this for 2 reasons...I didnt want a sand bed that deep to cover the pipe and it limited the size of the CL pump. I just finished scaping and for the most part, you can see any of the visual garbage.
 
Last edited:
FuzzyZipperbaum said:
THe most critical part is where you can put them. If you an put them at opposite ends of the tank and have some options on each side....you can probably get a way with it. IMHO you go with a closed loop because you are limited or are trying to hide the visual garbage. For me...(lunatic fringe thread) I went with a CL with 2 mp60 knock offs but the only place I was willing to mount the PHs were on the far back corner on one side where you can not see them. I used the CL to give more flow to other parts of the tank.....

I almost mounted the CL return inside of the overflow, on the bottom...I was going to put the strainer to the INSIDE of the overflow box....I was going to then drill the returns back through the box and have sand cover the pvc...thus no bulk heads in the bottom.... I didnt do this for 2 reasons...I didnt want a sand bed that deep to cover the pipe and it limited the size of the CL pump. I just finished scaping and for the most part, you can see any of the visual garbage.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I am certainly going to check out your thread...
 
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