Since my tank is not going to be run full - I have a dilemma.
The original skimmer is not available for use. I still need to skim the top somehow. So, I've pressed the left 2" standpipe into that function. I can set the tank depth by how high the standpipe reaches above the bottom.
I screwed a standard strainer on the top for the moment. Of course the noise was bad. To cure the noise issue I throttled the big ball valve, seen in prior pics, that's just after the bulkhead. This makes the standpipe almost full to the top. Unfortunately from the valve to the sump is NOT full so the noise radiating out of that pipe was crazy.
This led to me putting another 2" ball valve, I had laying around, under water in the sump. Now the entire pipe is flooded and the noise is very minimal. More importantly it actually sounds the same as ocean surging thru rocks. Which I love. It's a very random sound that comes and goes and continually changes in subtle ways. The noise is absolutely natural sounding. It's da bomb!
Special note. Pumping the sump completely dry can't come close to overflowing the display tank so I don't have to worry about that and don't need any safety or emergency overflows. If the throttling valve clogs it's not a problem. So don't sweat that.
Here's the current strainer. It's just your typical strainer unit.
There's a problem though... This standard strainer provides NO skimming AT ALL. The water actually rises above the local surface as it runs thru the screen. To solve this I decided to build a more conventional mini overflow.
Here's a base plate for the standpipe overflow. I routed it to fit the OD of a 2" PVC adapter. The outside is cut as a polygon with N=20. I routed the little teeth to be 1-1/2" tall.
Here's with all the teeth glued on.
From above.
Here's the finished result:
Another.
Installed and running. I could see massive skimming occurring with surface debris racing across the surface from the farthest corners of the surface. This underlined the fact that the original strainer isn't cutting it.
Noise?
What?
Say again?
I CAN"T HEAR YOU!
That 2" pipe is like a trumpet. I dropped a spherical cup on top and the sound was reduced by about 90%.
OH! One thing to watch out for.
I just put in the 300W heater right? Well I had it set to 73F. The new strainer raised the water in the display enough to drop the level in the sump about 10". Unnoticed that uncovered the heater's remote temperature sensor. The heater went on as it was trying to raise my living room AIR temperature up to 74F (It's 68F). Before I noticed the tank was driven up to 77F. No harm done but I have to get used to remote sensing heaters!
A vertical of the "glory hole" (look that up if you don't know what that means)
I'm open to any suggestion you folks might have for skimming with the constraints I have. Don't forget, whatever we do, will have to work with BIG surges too.