need some piping help

yah i might do that when are your days off,
need to say hi anyway man


Jeff: Thats a lot of risk just for a skimmer. Can you not plumb the skimmer externally? It looks like a disaster waiting to happen. Your more than welcome to come check out my plumbing to get an idea or two. Our tank dimensions are the same or close. If ive learned anything from this hobby its to keep it as simple as possible being you will want to upgrade, change or have to fix something at some time or another.
 
ok here is the photos of the frame work maybe u can get a better idea,

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just my thoughts, but what if you made the top tank into the tank with the skimmer and the bottom tank the fuge. I would then pump one drain to the skimmer tank, drill it(the skimmer tank)for an overflow to go straght down to the fuge (just like a display down to a sump)then you only need one more pump to get everything back up to display. just make sure you have enough room in the fuge for all excess water when you lose power. that's my 2 cents worth.
 
Ok I would have your overflow from display tank piped to your sump below, pump the water out of your sump up to fuge and then drill that to overflow straight into your display tank. Essentially making a big loop. Super easy and one pump only.
 
also if you lowered the top tank, since you wouldn't need all that clearance, you could get away from pumping it up to that top tank if the top of it is lower than the highest part of your overflow plumbing. it would probably be a slow feed, but in a sense if it goes through the skimmer again, wouldn't it be almost like having a recirculating skimmer? I might be wrong in my thinking on that second part with the skimmer.
 
not sure about drilling , these are from petsmart when thay had there 1 gallon sale, i never done it and dont have a bit, but would be nice to just flow to skimmer/sump at a slow rate, and power loss is a concern it does happen here all the time need some auto shut off valve s lol are something so i wont flood
 
you should be able to drill into the side wall just not the bottom of the tank, if you dont want to drill you could use an overflow box. As for flooding, if you loose power it stops the pump which stops the loop and as long as you dont have too much water circulating through the system nothing will overflow. A good way to insure this is to fill up all the tanks to the desired level with the pump turned off. then you know if you ever lose power they will not over flow. Overflows on tank only circulate water out of a tank if there is a pump pumping water in so you dont need to worry about them draining your tank if the power goes out either.
 
not sure about drilling , these are from petsmart when thay had there 1 gallon sale, i never done it and dont have a bit, but would be nice to just flow to skimmer/sump at a slow rate, and power loss is a concern it does happen here all the time need some auto shut off valve s lol are something so i wont flood

It's really not as bad as most people think, still a little scary drilling a tank for the first time but not really bad. I made Travis come drill my first for me but after seeing him do one hole, I was all "give me that dremel!" lol
 
you should be able to drill into the side wall just not the bottom of the tank

from what I understand most tanks only use tempered glass on the bottom.

It's really not as bad as most people think, still a little scary drilling a tank for the first time but not really bad. I made Travis come drill my first for me but after seeing him do one hole, I was all "give me that dremel!" lol

yeah, i had Matt(MBryant) drill the holes on my 150. I was too scared to try it, but I think the key is keeping it wet and not trying to drill through too fast. After watching him do it, I would probably do it myself now. If you don't trust your drilling skills, you might see if someone could do it for you... perhaps bring the tanks with you to the city and meet up before or after one of the meetings or something.
 
drilling the back sure would make it easy to plum to the sump. just but in one over flow in the center of the tank. anyone make those around here are would i have to order it from the net. i guess i could use a bulk head fitting and a strainer inside the tank. and not bother with overflow box.i guess that would work to
 
I got to see the frag tank and it had the strainer like that, made me think "why didn't I think of that?" .
 
hmmm, I"m not sure on that one. I've always had a fuge "T'd" off from the main return line so I just adjusted the ball valve until my flow was suitable, but I'm not sure on an actual "gph rule" for fuges. I know it's much slower flow than through a regular sump or display tank. When using something like cheato in a fuge, you want enough to keep the cheato tumbling (which is how I've judged my fuges in the past).

and just fyi, I did speak to my boss today, he's supposed to be bringin me his dremel in the next day or two, when he does I'll rush to home depot and get the bits I need and get that video for you. Using a hole saw like the one you linked to me would be very similar (albeit much easier i'd imagine)
 
i was trying to get a rough idea so i can get a pump, then i can aguest it from there just want to make sure with the head pressure of pumping up i will have a big enough pump to do the job, and thanks
 
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