Hey guys, I am very excited after having kept my 55 gallon for a few years to finally upgrading to a new 180 gallon marine land tank. This should be an awesome experience and hopefully a successful one. I will try and post pictures and information as much as possible as I learn.
Craigs 180 Gallon Build
- Thread starter chaase68
- Start date
The 55 I currently have has a hang on the back overflow and being that the new tank has dual built in overflows I have a few questions.
1.) Does it matter if the return does in the first hole or the back hole? Is there any benefits from doing it one way or the other?
2.) Using hard pipe, where should i put unions and shut off valves?
3.) If someone would be willing to tell or draw me a diagram of how the plumbing should be laid out it would be very appreciated? Current equipment would be, eshopps sump, sicce pump, reef octopus in sump skimmer, uv sterilizer and a hydor ATS.
These are the 3 questions I came up with for now, don't worry plenty to come!
1.) Does it matter if the return does in the first hole or the back hole? Is there any benefits from doing it one way or the other?
2.) Using hard pipe, where should i put unions and shut off valves?
3.) If someone would be willing to tell or draw me a diagram of how the plumbing should be laid out it would be very appreciated? Current equipment would be, eshopps sump, sicce pump, reef octopus in sump skimmer, uv sterilizer and a hydor ATS.
These are the 3 questions I came up with for now, don't worry plenty to come!
dave.m
Active member
Just suggestions, no hard-and-fast rules:
1). Which hole depends how you are going to finish the pipe. If you use an eductor you can aim it down the centre for flow or aim it at the front or back pane to create a gyre flow.
2). Put unions and shutoffs where you can reach them quickly and easily, especially in an emergency. That will be determined by placement of the tank in the room, i.e. where the walls are, what sort of cabinetry you have, if you have a separate fish room, etc. Just make sure you can get at them quickly when things go wrong (and they will, sooner or later).
3). You can easily examine the plumbing set-ups of the many tanks here. Basically you want a flow from one end to the other, going from highest baffles dropping down to lowest baffles. You didn't say whether you will use filter socks, but these would be in the first section of the sump that your drain from the tank would go to. Then down to the next sump section for the protein skimmer depending on the water height yours prefers to work at. Then a section for your dosing and filtering reactors. Then back to the return pump section last. In between you need to find a place to put your heaters, any monitoring probes you choose to use, and a sensor for your automatic top-off system, if any.
Which elements of the above you choose to use is entirely up to you. If you're not familiar with this stuff you might also want to consider getting the Mr. Saltwater Tank ebooks for pictures and explanations. No forum or magazine article can provide enough detail for the amount of information you have just asked for.
Dave.M
1). Which hole depends how you are going to finish the pipe. If you use an eductor you can aim it down the centre for flow or aim it at the front or back pane to create a gyre flow.
2). Put unions and shutoffs where you can reach them quickly and easily, especially in an emergency. That will be determined by placement of the tank in the room, i.e. where the walls are, what sort of cabinetry you have, if you have a separate fish room, etc. Just make sure you can get at them quickly when things go wrong (and they will, sooner or later).
3). You can easily examine the plumbing set-ups of the many tanks here. Basically you want a flow from one end to the other, going from highest baffles dropping down to lowest baffles. You didn't say whether you will use filter socks, but these would be in the first section of the sump that your drain from the tank would go to. Then down to the next sump section for the protein skimmer depending on the water height yours prefers to work at. Then a section for your dosing and filtering reactors. Then back to the return pump section last. In between you need to find a place to put your heaters, any monitoring probes you choose to use, and a sensor for your automatic top-off system, if any.
Which elements of the above you choose to use is entirely up to you. If you're not familiar with this stuff you might also want to consider getting the Mr. Saltwater Tank ebooks for pictures and explanations. No forum or magazine article can provide enough detail for the amount of information you have just asked for.
Dave.M
