My 300 gallon acrylic tank

[steve the plumb]

Hole to feed the pump.I have to drill a hole in the tank do I not.My 1" hole is useless its to small for a dart pump intake.Its fine for that other sequence pump but like you said watt for watt nothing beats the dart.All the other pumps that do a decent flow are energy hogs.My sump drains should be able to handle 3600 gph.So now if I get a dart I will have to enlarge my 1" hole or just drill another one.I think I am better off just drilling another hole.Now for the return line you recommend I send some flow back to the tank.I still think thats kind of a waste.I can use the dart to send water to my skimmer and uv units and my carbon and phosphate reactors.Here is the problem they are all small inputs so will I be restricting this pump to much to the point where I may as well get a different pump all together or do a 1" return from the dart and branch of that.Will I have plumbing pipes going all over the place.To me going to a 1" return from the dart isn't such a bad idea.Will I get to much restriction at 1".Keep in mind my cl pipes from the dart are 1".To go from 1 1/2" to 3/4" seems restrictive but 1" then go to the sump like you said and split into 3/4" for my return line sounds good.I can also put a ball valve to control flow to my overflow.This way if the darts to strong the water goes back into my sump plus I can tee off another 3/4" line for my uv unit and my skimmer.One pump can run everything.Now will I need something stronger than a dart.You got my mind working.To bad I didn't think about having a larger hole made in the sump.

 

[jnarowe]

I would call MDM and ask them about it. Their technicians can give you the exact method to remedy your issue. I am not entirely convinced that the 1" feed is not good enough.

 

[jnarowe]

Well I see on their site that they specifically state to not reduce the inlet line...so I guess either making your current hole bigger or drilling a new one is the only way. And I have no direct experience with drilling glass so you should ask that question in the DIY forum to get expert help.

 

[steve the plumb]

yes I know you can't make the hole smaller.I did that with my cl drain.I did a 1 1/2" bulkhead instead of 2".I didn't want to drill a 3" hole in the tank and thats the size of hole you need for a 2" drain.I may install an 1 1/2" drain instead of 2"I will see.That or I will go with the other sequence pump.The site says the pump can draw less wattage so Because my head pressure is low I should be fine.I will see about getting someone to drill the tank.

 

[jnarowe]

good luck with that. Most glass companies (all around here) won't touch tanks because of the risk of breakage. If you search on RC, you will find guys that have done it DIY and fairly easily. Saw one recently but I can't remember where.

 

[siropa]

I once got a large hold sandblasted in a tank for me by a headstone engraving place if you can believe it. only charged me $10 too.

 

[steve the plumb]

$10 is a joke.Here they charge $50 and if they come to your house to do it its $80 for the first hole and $25 - $50 per hole(this depends on your negotiation skills.There is a guy(he has a business) that will do it and guarantee it if it breaks(if I recall) but most stores that do it will guarantee it if you buy it from them.I will go see the guys I bought the tank from.That or settle for a pump that has a 1" inlet.

 

[steve the plumb]

 

[steve the plumb]

 

[steve the plumb]

 

[steve the plumb]

 

[steve the plumb]

more pics of the sump

 

[steve the plumb]

 

[steve the plumb]

I made enough partitions to try and diffuse any bubbles.I hope I did a good job.I have enough room for calerpa and 2 DSB's plus I can had a sponge witch I don't think I will need since I have filter socks.The first 2 partitions are 16" in height.The third one is the same height but has a space underneath for water bubbles to diffuse .The forth one is about 8" high then fifth one is 15" in height.The sixth one is 15" seventh one is 13" then the last one is 8".I am trying to have the least amount of bubbles.I don't know if I am doing this right.I looked at the sump I had and did something a little different.

 

[jnarowe]

Well, that's a lot of baffles. If you can easily vacuum out from in between them all, you should be OK. If any are too close for that, now is the time to change it. To be honest, with a sump that long, I doubt you will need that many.

BTW, it has been my experience that filter socks suck and floss shelves give better results without the hassle of the socks. Just my 2 cents, but they are worth at least $1.50!

 

[steve the plumb]

I know its to many baffles but I wanted to make different sections in the sump.I don't have a frag tank.I do have my old sump witch is 35 gal.I could maybe connect it to this one.I also want to place some egg crate on some of the sections in case I want to acclimate a fish.I want the calerpa in a separate section and I will probably make 2 x dsb sections.This way clean them separate.I may have a section for live rock and maybe frags.The egg crate will keep any fish from getting out.I also used filter floss in my old tank.I still have some so I can use it if I don't like the socks.I have space to vacuum out in between the baffles so its ok.I wasn't sure how many I needed.The true baffles are only the 2 after the drain intake.The rest are more partitions to separate the sump.I added the last baffle before the pump just to try and break up any leftover bubbles.If I see that that section becomes to empty because of the pump drawing to much water or running dry I will remove it.I wanted to do this once.If by chance I see that some of the baffles are useless or the partitions are useless I can cut them out.Its more simple to install now that the sump is empty then if it has water.Plus if anything ever goes wrong with top off or something I will have enough water in the sump.I will install a float switch for the pump(shut off below a certain water level.This way it won't burn the pump.

 

[jnarowe]

one thing about cleaning the DSBs is that you will have to take your sump/return system offline while you do it. Otherwise you will cloud the tank horribly. That's why my remote DSB was in a separate tank that could be isolated while I did any maintanence on it. Something to think about, again....

 

[steve the plumb]

I did think about that I don't have to vacuum the sand correct.I leave it as is.I have a large shop vac(15 gal) and a smaller vac (6 gal) so I plan to shut down the sump but leave the cl on.Since the sump has a partition I only have to vacuum out that section of water.The fittings(for the drain)aren't glued so I can even bypass the first section of the DSB.In all I just have to drain that section take my shop vac suck out the sand and put in the new sand.I don't think it will take more than 2 hours.I will already have the new sand washed and ready.My shop vac is pretty strong so it will suck out that sand pretty fast.The rest of the sections will still have water in them.If I put 90 on my return drains I can even leave the water on and just have it flow past the baffles.With the second DSB I will have to shut the water for sure.More than likely I will shut the water off any ways but I don't see it as being a big problem since you only change the sand once a year.The left BSD section is 14 " lonngx16" in height.The next section witch is after the baffles is 12" long and 15" in height.The last section is 18" long that section and goes to 13"high I will use for the calerpa I can also use it for any fish.If I want I can devide that section with egg crate.I will see.The dsb section aren't that big to the point where it becomes to much for me to handle.How much sand will be in those 2 sections. I don't think more than 100 pounds.I don't see it being to much of a task to change the sand.You on the other hand have a very large amount of sand.If I had planned to do that I would need something totally separate.

 

[steve the plumb]

the volume of water in those dsb sections is between 15 and 18 gal Per section).This is without the sand once the sand is in there its less.I don't see it as to much of a task.I will probably get some sand sifting back into the tank but it shouldn't be that bad plus as long as its new sand its ok.How much sand can come back to the tank.

 

[steve the plumb]

I looked at the sand bed calculator my first DSB section should need about 90 pounds of sand for a 7" sand bed.The other section needs about 79 pounds for a 7" sand bed.So I am off I will need 170 pounds of sand.Witch can be changed out every year(maybe a little longer)I don't know about the sand in my tank.This is a different story all together.I will have to try to keep that clean.I don't think you have to clean the dsb section.You leave it with a low flow and no air bubbles getting into the sand(deprive oxygen) I think I should be ok.I hope I will be.I figure I will have a good 100 gal of water in my sump.