garrettm's 187g In-Wall Build

garrettm said:
Thanks Worm! I am going to gravity drain the 50g from there to the sump. when I measured I left about 3" for fall from the 50g to the sump and made this decision on the "standard" fall rate for drain piping of 1/4" per 10 feet. It's only about 12 feet so I left a lot of room for error.
Click to expand...

OK that works out perfectly then.

garrettm said:
Despite all of their marketing attempts, I didn't go to Jared's. I actually had a family referral for a 3rd generation jeweler in downtown San Diego. The guy I dealt with was great and personal. I was able to custom design the ring and he even made it for 16% under my original budget. Very happy with his work. (unfortunately, unlike this build which is probably 16% over budget.)
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Well with every relationship there is give and take. I was married and have wonderful boys. If you take the receipts then you can keep the 16% LOL
 
My schedule has just been dramatically accelerated so it's time to kick this build into high gear. Everything as far as electrical, plumbing, and aquascaping will have to be complete for salt water hit the tank by May 9th! My fiancé had the genius idea to combine our engagement party with a fill party for the tank. If I wasn't certain about her before, I definitely am now!

Plumbing"¦.

I sat in my garage for a couple hours last night thinking about the details of how I would be plumbing this system and quickly realized the possibilities are almost endless. Valves, Couplings, elbows, unions, true union ball valves, flex pvc, bulkheads, reducers, street fittings, thread or slip? :uhoh3:


I have a very good general idea of how the system will be plumbed however I am wondering what is "œbest practice" or "œbest opinion" on a couple key decisions.

1) The system will be very permanent, if you can't tell already, haha. I could use mostly slip fittings with PVC glue on the system or I could try to incorporate threaded fittings where I can for easy maintenance and disassembly if needed. Any thought here? Are threads weaker? Is glue stronger? Etc.

2) When it comes to using reducer fittings. Where is the best place to have these? I will be running an 1 ½" from the pump outlet to a return that will be reduced to at the least ¾", or maybe 1""¦. Do the reducers go closer to the actual outlet of water into the tank or closer to the pump?

3) Return: I was initially thinking of using ¾" loc-line fittings with the flat head spray nozzles. I am not sure if I am sold on this option as I am seeing many systems with 1" returns and even just threaded elbow fittings to direct flow. I am wondering if anyone has any opinion on using the loc-line vs. just a threaded street 90 off a bulkhead in each corner. I also should mention my plan for flow inside the tank will primarily come from two Maxspect riptides on either side of the tank on alternating operation.
 
I would go with threaded connections for maintenance. Use Teflon tape on the threads. Smear a daub of aquarium silicone on the Teflon tape. It won't stick to the Teflon but will fill the tiny gaps in the threads for a water-tight fit.

Most pumps documentation will give you a minimum distance for reductions from the pump. In other words, further from the pump is better.

I like Loc Line for it's plasticity in positioning, but prefer eductors on the end of the pipe to boost output up to four times.

A lot of this has to do with personal experience and preference. IOW there is no universal answer.

Dave.M
 
dave.m said:
I would go with threaded connections for maintenance. Use Teflon tape on the threads. Smear a daub of aquarium silicone on the Teflon tape. It won't stick to the Teflon but will fill the tiny gaps in the threads for a water-tight fit.

Most pumps documentation will give you a minimum distance for reductions from the pump. In other words, further from the pump is better.

I like Loc Line for it's plasticity in positioning, but prefer eductors on the end of the pipe to boost output up to four times.

A lot of this has to do with personal experience and preference. IOW there is no universal answer.

Dave.M
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Thanks for the input Dave! It's definitely helpful since this is my first major plumbing project.

I started to sketch out the plans for the flow from the external overflow box to the sump. I would post the pic but it is so terribly drawn I'll have to find another way to portray the plan. The plan uses a mix of threaded and slip fittings that allow for maintenance on any piece of the setup. I am trying to get all the fittings planned out so I can make only one or two orders.
 
garrettm said:
I am trying to get all the fittings planned out so I can make only one or two orders.
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Please pardon me if I seem to be laughing at your expense. I can't begin to estimate the mileage on my truck driving back and forth to various hardware and plumbing supply stores trying to get all the parts needed for a job.

Dave.M
 
dave.m said:
Please pardon me if I seem to be laughing at your expense. I can't begin to estimate the mileage on my truck driving back and forth to various hardware and plumbing supply stores trying to get all the parts needed for a job.

Dave.M
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he just said "trying" :cool:
 
I will be "trying" alright, but I have to save you are probably right Dave. I am bound to be one coupling short or just 1" short of teflon tape. haha
 
I have finalized my main return's design and listed all my components but am now running into a real challenge. How do I get water from my frag/refugium/lagoon back to the sump?

I have three drains that will be stacked vertically on top of each other. The drain pipe for the tank on the end will drain through the top of the stand. The longer frag tank and the refugium under it will drain in the same was as the top tank. These are all 1 1/2" pipes.

<a href="http://s1219.photobucket.com/user/gmitch72/media/In%20Wall/d4d83ece-c1d2-4718-9ac2-a13a9035fa70.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1219.photobucket.com/albums/dd427/gmitch72/In%20Wall/d4d83ece-c1d2-4718-9ac2-a13a9035fa70.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo d4d83ece-c1d2-4718-9ac2-a13a9035fa70.jpg"/></a>


Do I need to have a separate drain line for each tank all the way back to the sump or can I use something like this where I would increase the pipe size to 2" at the tees? This will be angled down with the help of flex pvc, and the pipe on the far left will act as a vent. I could be completely off here but think this might work.

<a href="http://s1219.photobucket.com/user/gmitch72/media/In%20Wall/84feb6bd-b15b-48ef-895c-ad46e4ec1178.png.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1219.photobucket.com/albums/dd427/gmitch72/In%20Wall/84feb6bd-b15b-48ef-895c-ad46e4ec1178.png" border="0" alt=" photo 84feb6bd-b15b-48ef-895c-ad46e4ec1178.png"/></a>
 
To even further complicate my current predicament. I found this chart on flexpvc.com showing the rates of flow through various pipe sizes if moving by gravity (assuming about 6ft/s for this test). In this case I don't believe I would have to increase the pipe size to 2" and would be ok just running 1 1/2" for the drain. I am only expecting about 1,500 to 1,800gph through that system. Am I overthinking this? I don't do well with a lot of options as you can see in this thread I change my mind constantly.

<a href="http://s1219.photobucket.com/user/gmitch72/media/In%20Wall/0665E0A5-6653-464A-929F-E4A13EF7FBF9.png.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1219.photobucket.com/albums/dd427/gmitch72/In%20Wall/0665E0A5-6653-464A-929F-E4A13EF7FBF9.png" border="0" alt=" photo 0665E0A5-6653-464A-929F-E4A13EF7FBF9.png"/></a>
 
garrettm said:
Do I need to have a separate drain line for each tank all the way back to the sump or can I use something like this where I would increase the pipe size to 2" at the tees? This will be angled down with the help of flex pvc, and the pipe on the far left will act as a vent. I could be completely off here but think this might work.

<a href="http://s1219.photobucket.com/user/gmitch72/media/In%20Wall/84feb6bd-b15b-48ef-895c-ad46e4ec1178.png.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1219.photobucket.com/albums/dd427/gmitch72/In%20Wall/84feb6bd-b15b-48ef-895c-ad46e4ec1178.png" border="0" alt=" photo 84feb6bd-b15b-48ef-895c-ad46e4ec1178.png"/></a>
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If I am reading the build correctly, you should make each separate. If you make a siphon the others would instantly defeat the siphon.
 
Hey Worm. This is the drain from the refugium/frag/lagoon tanks so I wasn't planning on doing a siphon. It's pretty much 3 tanks draining into one 1.5" line back to the sump.
 
Ahh ok.. Thanks... I thought I might have misread it.

Just becareful of clogs/snails and it should be fine.

If one does clog though, lets say the part past the last tank drain, it would then fill from the highest and back feed into the lowest.

Personally a separate one would keep my mind at ease a bit more.
 
I'd run all 3 separately using flex pvc, anytime you start combining them and not increasing the size of the pipe to accept the increase opens up for disaster.

I love your layout though of the room :)
 
worm5406 said:
Ahh ok.. Thanks... I thought I might have misread it.

Just becareful of clogs/snails and it should be fine.

If one does clog though, lets say the part past the last tank drain, it would then fill from the highest and back feed into the lowest.

Personally a separate one would keep my mind at ease a bit more.
Click to expand...

You are right, I would feel more comfortable with three. I'm just trying to over complicate things again. haha

Brando457 said:
I'd run all 3 separately using flex pvc, anytime you start combining them and not increasing the size of the pipe to accept the increase opens up for disaster.

I love your layout though of the room :)
Click to expand...

Thanks Brando! The layout has changed many times but I think it's pretty much set now. I will be using flex pvc on most of the plumbing just to make things a little easier.

I was thinking about increasing the diameter to a 2" pipe but three separate lines is probably the safest bet here.
 
I see a clear tank and I want to paint it black.... well that back that is.

<a href="http://s1219.photobucket.com/user/gmitch72/media/In%20Wall/8671c56d-2e70-40f5-80f6-17f01a9e7cb0.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1219.photobucket.com/albums/dd427/gmitch72/In%20Wall/8671c56d-2e70-40f5-80f6-17f01a9e7cb0.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 8671c56d-2e70-40f5-80f6-17f01a9e7cb0.jpg"/></a>

I just picked up some regular black paint at the local hardware store thinking if I ever need to scrape this off it will be easy. That might have been a mistake however. Time will tell.

<a href="http://s1219.photobucket.com/user/gmitch72/media/In%20Wall/a9094fb9-6d0b-42ba-9448-82a40d54e319.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1219.photobucket.com/albums/dd427/gmitch72/In%20Wall/a9094fb9-6d0b-42ba-9448-82a40d54e319.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo a9094fb9-6d0b-42ba-9448-82a40d54e319.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1219.photobucket.com/user/gmitch72/media/In%20Wall/e79cd97b-de28-45f5-9951-69744c61584c.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1219.photobucket.com/albums/dd427/gmitch72/In%20Wall/e79cd97b-de28-45f5-9951-69744c61584c.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo e79cd97b-de28-45f5-9951-69744c61584c.jpg"/></a>

I had to do about 5 coats for complete coverage and the painting is not done yet. Anyone have any guesses?
 
Well I thought I was going to have another painting project however that turned into two more painting projects and a scraping projects.

I painted the second layer of paint as dry erase paint from Home Depot thinking it would be great to use the back of the tank as a place to write notes, schedules, or whatever else. Well....that ended up failing when I wrote on the dry white board paint and it wouldn't come off.

I ended up scraping off the paint this am and am now recoating with the rustoleum enamel flat black paint. I will leave the back black and put a white board somewhere else.

42 days until salt water.....yikes!
 
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