Newb here trying to do it right the 1st time.

M

MadModder

New member
Hey all.

So I got my wife a 120gal tank for christmas and she is ALL about doing a reef. Needless to say, shes happy with her present and starting this hobby, so Im happy. Im just trying to keep up and make sure she doesnt waste a bunch a money by missing something and having to start over. I have car parts I need to buy. This isn't really my thing so I appologize in advance for not knowing the nomenclature.

120gal tank (actual specs is just over 112gal) with internal over flows. There are 2 holes drilled on the bottom glass of the 2 back corners, 4 holes in all, with curved black wall things separating them from the rest of the tank.

The sump tank is 32Gal.
1200GPH pump.
Octopus 150int skimmer.
Reef breeder 48" light.
Dragons breath in the refugium.
2 medium reactors. 1 for phosguard and the other little charcoal pellet. I believe she found them on BRS.
1 sock.

Thats pretty much the short list.

She'll be ordering all of the piping (shes doing colored piping from BRS), fittings, live sand (black), rock (live and/or dry, Idk.), and salt soon, hopefully over the next month or so.
She already has a bunch of bottles of various things, a big test kit and a RODI unit that as 3 or 4 tubes.

Basic idea of how piping with be ran.
ZALjH7X

The square is the tank. The circles on the pipe are ball valves so flow can be stopped when we need to service something in the sump.

I want to be sure she isnt skipping over anything, parts wise, before we get to filling up the tank with water and cycling.

Thanks in advance.

Ps:Here is the tank with stand. We're also refurbishing the stand.
gDtx8od
 
If you are running two runs down and keeping them separate the whole way you may want to grab another sock to have in place rather than running them in together. I have one run down and the sock fills enough that having two into it would result in replacing once a day at minimum before it overflowing. I know that is the least of your concerns in the question but it was what stuck out to me the most. I have never had dual drains so I am not familiar with the most beneficial way with that.

Actually, do you have all of your down coming from one side and all your return to the other? If you do won't you end up with water just sitting in the one overflow that the return is coming up through since the water will have no where to drain to and just get trapped? Again, I have only ever done single down, single up so maybe that is the right way to approach it but I would think water would get trapped and end up resulting in some funkiness. (And that is saying I am reading the picture correctly)
 
Actually you will have a drain and a return in each overflow as far as a standard set up. For better performance search for a Herbie overflow. This will give you better flow then just run the returns over the top.
 
A.Astore, I should have been more clear on the piping. Only 1 of the downpipes always returns, the other is emergency. Only 1 pipe is going into the sock but I have thought about gwtting a 2nd sock for the over flow.

Yes, both downs are on 1 side and both returns are on the other. I had thought about what you said with there being little flow on the end tank with both ups, I'm going to make 1 of the returns at the very bottom of the end tank so there will be no standing water.
 
Mrramsey said:
Actually you will have a drain and a return in each overflow as far as a standard set up. For better performance search for a Herbie overflow. This will give you better flow then just run the returns over the top.
Click to expand...

Drain is on the left and return is on the right.

1 drain is constant and 1 is an emergency. I believe thats the Herbie overflow, no?
 
I am fairly new into reefing my self and one thing i would definitely change if i was starting today would be my stand. It's way too short and narrow. I can't really tell from the picture how high your sump goes but one thing i would make definitely sure is that you can easily access the skimmer cup and take it out. In general easy access into the sump. Mine is short and has two (!) braces in the front and makes accessing anything in there impossible.

Also on the plumbing you'll need to do something for silencing the regular overflow (probably durso overflow i would guess). And keep in mind that 2 one inch pipes don't equal one two inch pipe in terms of flow. Someone that's a better expert on plumbing selections might chime in on this though...
 
Lol. The 1st thing I told my wife to do was to make sure everything was easily accessible. The last thing I want to do, and I know she wont either, is to have to maintain this beast in such tight quarts. It all fits comfortable. The catch of the skimmer is a little tight, but not a headache.

Idk what durso is but there will be ball valves.

I know two 1"return pipes dont equal one 2" drain pipe. In MOST applications.

If you look at the sketch, you'll see there really only one 1" return line because I only have one coming from the pump which, btw, is only a 3/4" outlet. Ontop of that, one of the return pipes is ending at the bottom of the overflow to ensure circulation. My dad did the math on head pressure vs pump output to get the flow rate. This is what he does for a living, hes the guy who maintains water pressure for everybodies homes, businesses and schools in Los Angeles.
Thanks for asking about that though, I feel I found a little loop hole in what is common knowledge because of what my Pops does.
 
The 3/4 holes are for your returns, they can be smaller because the pump generates more force in the return than gravity does on the drain. Also, the setup of the drain has a lot to do with the flow rate. For example a herbie doesn't let air into the pipe so it can carry hundreds more gallons per hour than a durso.

Putting drains or returns on the floor of the tank is a flood risk. You need enough space in your sump to accommodate all of the water that will drain down if you have a power outage that causes the pump to cut out. Your drains will continue draining and the returns will siphon water to the sump.

You should google herbie, stockman, and durso drains. The way you set that up will make a big diff in the reliability and noise of your system. Good luck!
 
I think you're confused.

All of the holes in the tank are, I believe, 1 & 3/4". The output on the pump is 3/4".

We already figured out how much the sump can hold and we're good there. Ontop of that, there will be a check valve on the return in case of a power outage.

Thanks for the concern though. This is EXACTLY why I posted here so more experienced reefers can share problems to be sure we are prepared.
 
We're not relying completely on the check valve. Like I said in my previous post, we've figured out how much the sump can hold and we're good there.

Since we're on the subject though, what do you think is the best checkvalve? I think my wife wants to get the one that was on BRSTV. I dont remember the name or design
 
MadModder said:
We're not relying completely on the check valve. Like I said in my previous post, we've figured out how much the sump can hold and we're good there.

Since we're on the subject though, what do you think is the best checkvalve? I think my wife wants to get the one that was on BRSTV. I dont remember the name or design
Click to expand...
They are not really worth the price IMO. I had one and removed it as it was just another piece for friction loss in the return. As others have said they need frequent cleaning. If you really want one get one that has unions and that can be disassembled for cleaning. My suggestion is not to use one.
 
As for the drains And returns I'd do dual herbies and run the return over the back in the middle of the tank with 2 return nozzles. You'll get a very good flow rate and a quiet one at that.
 
So the set up I explained is a herbie drain, yeah?

She doesn't want to run pipes from both end. The previouse owner had it set up to where there was a return and drain pipe at each end of the tank so pipes criss crossed down to the sump. We've read/heard that horizontal pipes should be avoided.
 
MadModder said:
So the set up I explained is a herbie drain, yeah?

She doesn't want to run pipes from both end. The previouse owner had it set up to where there was a return and drain pipe at each end of the tank so pipes criss crossed down to the sump. We've read/heard that horizontal pipes should be avoided.
Click to expand...

I'm not an expert on a Herbie but yeah keep the horizontals as short as you can. The dual herbies are common here. If I recall correctly the 3/4 on a Herbie is used as the siphon and the 1" as the emergency because the 3/4 is a poor size for an emergency.
 
The holes in the glass are 1.75". Bulkhead fittings would be 1.5".

As its drawn, the returns will be 2". Feeds will be 1".
 
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