New Tank Room Design

[moonlightdriver]

I just thought I would get your guys opinion on my new fish tank room design...
I would just like to give a shot out to Captain Cully's & TheReelRuk for their great threads on their tank builds... This has helped me design this one...

I am looking for any feedback that would help with the design...

So here is what I got so far

<a href="http://s95.photobucket.com/albums/l133/moonlightdriver/?action=view&current=FISHTANKROOM_Page_1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l133/moonlightdriver/FISHTANKROOM_Page_1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

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[moonlightdriver]

One sump & one Refugium

 

[captain7359]

Drill the tank and get rid of the hob overflow. Look into the three pipe silent siphon style overflow too. Move the sump and equipment out from under the stand so it will be easier to work on. I'd also put an extra tee and valve on the discharge of the pump so you can pump your water change water right to the slop sink or sewer connection (or is that a sewer connection under the sink with piping to if?). Put a valve on the bottom of the ro/di tank so you can suck right out of that and back to the tank to complete the water change. Add a second drain from the fuge just in case something plugs one. Put a few tees and valves on the discharge of the pump to feed reactors and other equipment instead of having extra pumps in the sump. Looks good though all sketched out and good time spent planning it all out.

 

[solRNY]

nice sketch up,
agree with what captain7359 about those u tube overflow, after a while they slow down due to air bubbles getting trapped in them, a pain to start them too!
would move the return pump out of the way, looks like u can trip over it... have fun!

 

[pascal32]

LOVE the picture!

couple suggestions - move the return pump under the side table - it's a trip hazard and will wear on you over time

play with the head loss calculator to determine pipe diameter. 1" is usually too restrictive, 1 1/4" of 1 1/2" gets MUCH more flow.

for the overflow box, what is the thought with the tubes over the tank?

what size tank is this? depending on size you might be better off with two overflow boxes than one for noise

make sure you union both the intake and output of the return pump

you don't need valves on the drains, they will only cause restriction, even if open

consider valves (preferably gate valves) on BOTH return lines in case you have a piece that prefers less flow on one side

have you throught about running the two return lines down the side? depending on light MH can affect PVC over time

I'm not against cascading tanks, however I do prefer controlling the flow which is risky in a cascade setup - consider tapping that right off the return pump and letting the tank drain to the sump. depending on pipe diameter of the drains you can T into a single 2"

The drain for water changes is nice, however it will only drain the section behind that glass panel which might not be enough & puts strain on the divider depending on water volume. also make sure that has a dip in it to prevent anything going backwards

consider an over/under/over in the sump for bubbles

make sure to leave room for a filter sock on the drain - looks tight with that skimmer

on the flow you could also add one or two returns through the back glass, though siphoning could be an issue

I prefer to separate the carbon and GFO to individually control the flow. depending on your return pump put a "rail" along the back with gate valves to control the flow.

RO/DI getting hooked up for topoff? Watch TDS creep on a straight hookup with floating valve

 

[RandyO]

Lots of good feedback here.

Here's my thoughts before reading others feedback.

Your return pump has a 90 degree bend to the intake. This could cause the pump to cavitate. (generate Air bubbles)
It's usually best to have a straight shot from sump to pump.
My suggestion would be to put the pump under the R.O. Unit straight out of the side of the sump.
If you decide to go with Blurry's suggestion of not using a cascade to fill the refugium, you can put the overflow box on the opposite(left) side, put the pump on the right and T off to feed both tanks separately.

 

[acasp4]

looks good but get a reef ready tank overflow boxes are ugly and a pain in the ***

 

[moonlightdriver]

Thanks for all the feed back... I appreciate it... There is a lot of great advice here... Time to tweet the setup

I know the overflow is not ideal but it was what I currently had ... but when I do decide to do this I will drill the tank...
The line running under the sink would be a "just in case" type of problem so it wouldn't over flow onto the flow... it would just hit that point and drain away...

My current tank is only a 75 gal...

def like the idea of relocating the return pump out of the way...

I have a tee & extra valve between the sump and return pump that I was thinking that could be used to hook up to the drain of the sink for water changes... Does anyone see a problem with that?

should I just ditch the two different tank setups and run one larger one? like I have have 75 gal now and if I upgraded I could use that as the sump/refug. all in one...
that would eliminate a lot of the extra plumping... THOUGHTS?

 

[captain7359]

I've got 3 tanks in my sump room that cascade from one another and there is only a few inches of difference in height between them with no issues. If you don't have the sump and fuge tanks yet just keep your eyes out for some nice big tanks and put them to the right of the display. What condition is the 75? Are you selling it? Use that for the sump or the top tank in the cascade and a rubbermaid stock tank as the sump below it. Do you have a spot planned for growing out frags?

 

[exray]

Wow very nice hook up

 

[RandyO]

Lots of good feedback here.

Here's my thoughts before reading others feedback.

Your return pump has a 90 degree bend to the intake. This could cause the pump to cavitate. (generate Air bubbles)
It's usually best to have a straight shot from sump to pump.
My suggestion would be to put the pump under the R.O. Unit straight out of the side of the sump.
If you decide to go with Blurry's suggestion of not using a cascade to fill the refugium, you can put the overflow box on the opposite(left) side, put the pump on the right and T off to feed both tanks separately.

I now realize that's a bulk reef supply dual reactor and not the R.O. Unit. My mistake. I guess that would of sounded funny to put the pump over by the wall and the sink.

I meant under the BRS reactor.

Also, not sure of it was mentioned, but you really should run a check valve off the main pump.

 

[pascal32]

I have a tee & extra valve between the sump and return pump that I was thinking that could be used to hook up to the drain of the sink for water changes... Does anyone see a problem with that?

depends on teh relative height of the hole drilled in the sump to the tdrain on the sink. typically the drilled hole is lower than the sink drain (T-Trap). You can raise the tank to resolve that.

To determine the amount of water you would actually change calculate the volume of water on that side of the divider panel, and add the volume of water above the divider when the return pump is off.

 

[pascal32]

Also, not sure of it was mentioned, but you really should run a check valve off the main pump.

Good call on the 90 before the pump!

Your killing me with the check valve Randy you are about the last person I would like to contradict. Check valves worry me for a couple reasons

* restricted flow (back pressure on pump)
* could get clogged (cage on pump intake should take care of this)
*stuff builds up/grows over time reducing the effectiveness after you get used to it
* long term reliability (I'm probably overly concerned with reliability compared to most folks as work takes me away from the tank for weeks at a time)

moonlightdriver - if you do put a check valve in consider a flapper/swing style with a clear viewing area instead of the ones they sell at home depot and lowes with the pyramid thingamajig on the inside. Preferably a true union one which will let you clean it out if anything grows in there.

http://www.marinedepot.com/True_Uni...Valves-Plumbing_Parts-FT9244-FIFTVLTC-vi.html

if anyone has used one of these for a couple years I would be interested to hear how well it still works

 

[RandyO]

Good call on the 90 before the pump!

Your killing me with the check valve Randy you are about the last person I would like to contradict. Check valves worry me for a couple reasons

* restricted flow (back pressure on pump)
* could get clogged (cage on pump intake should take care of this)
*stuff builds up/grows over time reducing the effectiveness after you get used to it
* long term reliability (I'm probably overly concerned with reliability compared to most folks as work takes me away from the tank for weeks at a time)

moonlightdriver - if you do put a check valve in consider a flapper/swing style with a clear viewing area instead of the ones they sell at home depot and lowes with the pyramid thingamajig on the inside. Preferably a true union one which will let you clean it out if anything grows in there.

http://www.marinedepot.com/True_Uni...Valves-Plumbing_Parts-FT9244-FIFTVLTC-vi.html

if anyone has used one of these for a couple years I would be interested to hear how well it still works

Hey Blurry
I hear you on the worries. I only use good ones. Mostly clear with unions, so it's easy to replace yearly if you feel the need to. I feel they work more often than not, but I also like to have a backup plan of holes drilled in return lines at water surface. It the redundancy that helps me sleep at night. Also, the check valves I use do don't restrict the flow as much as the white ones.

I shouldn't say this, because I don't want to jinx it, but I have a 2" check valve on one of my look down tanks that has been in use since September 2008 and I use it many times per month without fail. Since the returns are designed to keep the surface ripple free, they are 4-5 inches under the water surface and can not have anti-siphon holes.

 

[Eastamherstbias]

The check valve that ARC installed on my basement sump has the open viewing area so I can see in and check flow and debris. I am at month 20 with no problems.

 

[aguz1126]

If you can get a hold of chrisqueens he has a really nice just turn the key water change setup.