Posted this earlier on nano-reef.com but didn't get much of a response. Was hoping some more folks here could offer a little advice.
I currently have a 10 gal. nano that I have been running for about 3 years. Decided to go ahead and get a 16 bowfront.
My 10 gal. has all sorts of crap hanging on the back (skimmer, power filter, powerheads, etc.), and I really want a clean look for this tank. So I decided to go ahead and do a 10 gal. sump with skimmer and refugium. After reading some of the threads on drilling tanks, I think I want to drill the tank and do some sort of stockman/durso drainpipe on the back wall. I have never had a drilled tank before (always had overflow boxes on my bigger tanks), and don't know too much about flow rates and corresponding bulkhead size. Because I want this tank to have very little other than the livestock and structure, I think a pvc piped overflow instead of a box would be less intrusive. So here is my proposed plan:
- 1 1" drain with stockman standpipe (elbowed to back panel, not bottom panel)
- 2 1/2" returns with two more teed off loc-lines at return bulkheads (will essentially give 4 return flows instead of 2), drilled about 1/2 way down back of tank
- SCWD
-mag drive 5 return pump, teed off with ball valve to feed low flow to refugium
I have always had way too much clutter and heat issues in my tank with powerheads and other stuff, and I'm trying to avoid that by having a high flow return pump and a sump for the skimmer, heater, etc.
My question is does this sound like a good setup? I have lots of SPS and need the high flow, but I'm wondering if the mag drive 5 is overkill (500 gph). I did read that the SCWD will kick it down to 450 gph, plus the tee off for the refugium will reduce it some more. The next step down would be a mag drive 3 (350 gph). A main concern I have is the size of the bulkheads and the drainpipe. Piped overflows seem pretty noisy, and I didn't know how much the Stockman config. silenced it. I'm hoping to get this right the first time, as I've had a lot of tanks in the past that were just sort of thrown together.
I currently have a 10 gal. nano that I have been running for about 3 years. Decided to go ahead and get a 16 bowfront.
My 10 gal. has all sorts of crap hanging on the back (skimmer, power filter, powerheads, etc.), and I really want a clean look for this tank. So I decided to go ahead and do a 10 gal. sump with skimmer and refugium. After reading some of the threads on drilling tanks, I think I want to drill the tank and do some sort of stockman/durso drainpipe on the back wall. I have never had a drilled tank before (always had overflow boxes on my bigger tanks), and don't know too much about flow rates and corresponding bulkhead size. Because I want this tank to have very little other than the livestock and structure, I think a pvc piped overflow instead of a box would be less intrusive. So here is my proposed plan:
- 1 1" drain with stockman standpipe (elbowed to back panel, not bottom panel)
- 2 1/2" returns with two more teed off loc-lines at return bulkheads (will essentially give 4 return flows instead of 2), drilled about 1/2 way down back of tank
- SCWD
-mag drive 5 return pump, teed off with ball valve to feed low flow to refugium
I have always had way too much clutter and heat issues in my tank with powerheads and other stuff, and I'm trying to avoid that by having a high flow return pump and a sump for the skimmer, heater, etc.
My question is does this sound like a good setup? I have lots of SPS and need the high flow, but I'm wondering if the mag drive 5 is overkill (500 gph). I did read that the SCWD will kick it down to 450 gph, plus the tee off for the refugium will reduce it some more. The next step down would be a mag drive 3 (350 gph). A main concern I have is the size of the bulkheads and the drainpipe. Piped overflows seem pretty noisy, and I didn't know how much the Stockman config. silenced it. I'm hoping to get this right the first time, as I've had a lot of tanks in the past that were just sort of thrown together.
