NanoGurl's 75g Reef Thread

[drummereef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9745599#post9745599 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NanoGurl
Thanks I'm getting there slowly....

Could you explain what you meant by unions? And the elbow in the fuge? You mean just high enough for a lil bit of the water to fit and some for air?

PM sent, btw.

Check out the links below for pics of unions. Put these in where ever you think you'll need to take apart your plumbing, like right under the bulkheads. They allow you to disconnect a particular section easily. True unions have the 'union' plus a 'ball valve' both together. Yes, the elbow in the fuge should be half water, half air at the outlet. This will cause less splashing and bubbles. You don't have to do this, but hey, it works good.

Pic of fuge with elbow:

Standard Union:
http://www.savko.com/PartList.asp?pgid=3&ptid=14&pid=108

True Union Ball Valve:
http://www.savko.com/PartList.asp?pgid=1&ptid=2&pid=1

 

[mrbncal]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9743111#post9743111 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NanoGurl
Here is my sump design. Please feel free to critique it.

if you reverse the way you have it here it solves the problem. I think the idea is a good one actually but you will run into problems ( I think ) by closing the valve above the skimmer section. by problems I mean that you want most of your flow to your skimmer not your fuge and it will be harder to get dialed in

the way it is drawn you will not get any ( or very little) flow to the fuge unless you shut the skimmer valve slightly. I think ( my opinion again ) that you will have trouble getting a good adjustment the way its drawn.

in other words it would be easier to allow a consistently small amount thru the first valve and let most of the flow go by to the skimmer than to get most of the flow to go into the skimmer and get a consistent small amount to go to the fuge.

 

[drummereef]

Don't you think the back pressure from the water falling into the skimmer section will push plenty of water to the fuge section? Where's Melev when we need him.

 

[mrbncal]

not saying you cant do it ...but i think the idea is to have as little back pressure on the drain system as possible. I guess the concept depends on where you want the most water to go.

In my simple minded brain thingy it says the water will travel down the drain to the first valve and if its open travel tru it. Because thats the easiest path. if you close it a little to divert the water to the fuge then water will flow the easiest path and take the fuge tube. as you close the valve it also increases the back pressure and the resistance to go straight and you will have to close the valve to the fuge to regulate the amount of water going into the fuge . ( unless you want more ) causing less flow overall.
Stay with me
So if you can close the first valve and force the water go by then the first valve can be craked open slightly until the proper flow amount is dialed in. Easier here to get a small amount because you have a pool of water above the valve between the valve and the tee

 

[mrbncal]

I think it just depends on where you want most of the drain water to go. If it was me and I wanted most of the water to go to the skimmer then I would put it at the end of the drain line. Opposite from how Nano has it drawn.
Again its just my opinion. I could be wronfi;eg. I could be wroenhvdg. Wroneeecung. I might be mistaken.

 

[NanoGurl]

Thanks guys for all of your help and input. I'm still trying to sort out the best design.

Do you think this would be any better? Or worse?

 

[dastratt]

I've never built a sump but I highly doubt the arrangement of the T makes a difference. In the upper figure the water certainly will flow laterally over to the refuge. There is a bit more tubing and an elbow which will cause some loss but I assume you want most of the flow going to the skimmer anyway. So some suitable adjustment of the ball valves will provide the flow ratio you want. The adjustment of the ball valves will be different but not much.

The only thing I'd say you want to avoid is a slight uphill run. I've seen arrrangements with other than 90 deg elbows for this reason, to make sure the flow across to the fuge is not upward (though again a tiny amount just is not going to matter).

 

[mrbncal]

Ok I have refered to the masters site and I take back what I wrote above. Your original drawing is exactly like what melev did in his example (other than you added an extra ball valve. So...sorry to have thrown that monkey wrench into the works. Heres the link to the picture its down the page a bit.

http://www.melevsreef.com/install_sump.html

I did mine different but that just goes to show you theres more than one way to skin a cat or plumb a sump so carry on , carry on forget I was even here. : )

 

[NanoGurl]

Thanks guys! I will go with the original drawing and see how it works!

 

[Mojo Jojo]

Experiment with designs to see which you like best. There is no right and wrong way to do things. Well like promised here is the tweak with direct feed to the Sedra pump.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1100807

 

[NanoGurl]

Thanks! Cool thread I'm tagging along.

 

[NanoGurl]

Well we started adding water to the tank tonight. I don't have enough places to store everything so we are adding it to the tank as the RO/DI unit makes it and we add the correct amount of salt.

We still have to plumb everything for the sump, and cut down the drain pipe. You can see how high it is in the photo. This was used on our old 90g so we need to lower it.

Another thing, there was hardly any sand storm at all. I was amazed at how clear the water stayed this time so far. It's almost like the sand we got had little to know dust. Quite happy with that so far

First water goes in!

This is all we were able to add tonight. The RO/DI unit is currently making more.

 

[NanoGurl]

I'm also looking at getting a reader for my RO/DI unit. This one seems to be regarded pretty highly from my previous searches. What do ya'll think?

http://www.spectrapure.com/St_quality_p2.htm

$50.00 plus shipping.

 

[neotekz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9746038#post9746038 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NanoGurl
Thanks guys for all of your help and input. I'm still trying to sort out the best design.

Do you think this would be any better? Or worse?

i made my sump exactly like yours with the t off the intake, it didnt work at all. the water would just barely trickle in the refuge. your second design would probably work better than your first one.
i put a T on my return line with a valve, this worked great.

 

[drummereef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9754210#post9754210 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NanoGurl
I'm also looking at getting a reader for my RO/DI unit. This one seems to be regarded pretty highly from my previous searches. What do ya'll think?

http://www.spectrapure.com/St_quality_p2.htm

$50.00 plus shipping.

Yes, the COM-100 is the one you want. Yea, water!!!

 

[Mojo Jojo]

Hooray!!! The filling has begun . Say that is one cool TDS meter. I'm ordering one right now .

 

[NanoGurl]

Thanks neotekz and drummereef!

 

[NanoGurl]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9754488#post9754488 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by joeyjoeq
Hooray!!! The filling has begun . Say that is one cool TDS meter. I'm ordering one right now .

lol copycat!

 

[NanoGurl]

I was thinking of getting the Tunze 6060 for flow instead of my maxi-jets. Do you think one of these plus the flow from the return would be good enough?

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=TZ1313&idCartRow=4682601&isKit=0

 

[drummereef]

That would be a good choice. I love Tunze products. If you have 5x flow through the sump with the Tunze 6060 that would give you roughly 26x turnover. Depending on what you are keeping you could easily up the flow with a couple Nanostream 6045s instead. Then you'd have approx 36x turnover, and more placement options since you have two to work with. Or, just do a 6080 and you'll get about the same amount of flow.