Padrino's 220 Upgrade

[Padrino]

Thank you everyone for the kinds words and welcome aboard to the slowest journey to set sail on RC

I'm glad many of you are able to appreciate my methodology and workmanship.

I have a question that I would like to ask all of you, I am trying to determine exactly how to plumb my closed loop setup using my abyzz pumps. I have prepared a few different options that are shown below. I'd like to get your opinions and find the general conscience.

Both Abyzz pumps will be constantly ramping up and down continuously while feeding an Oceansmotions 4Way on each circuit. The beauty about the OM is that no matter how I plumb it, I can just get another drum and it will change the dynamic of the firing order. I was lucky enough to acquire more than one drum as well so I have some options before me. In terms of the actual plumbing though, I will just plumb each port that is adjacent to the OM outlet as this will make plumbing easy and clean. But lets here your opinions. The options above are just a couple ideas and I am open to all other suggestions.
Cheers
Rob

One thing I forgot to explain P1-2 means closed loop Pump 1 - port 2 from the OM4Way.

 

[Padrino]

Here is a quick plumbing diagram for those interested on how one of the closed loop circuits will be plumbed.

 

[jtarmitage]

You may want to consider adding TUBV's at the CL return bulkheads as well. When I had my 250g with dual CL's set up, that is what I chose to do, even though the cost was considerably more. The reason being is that at some point you may want to change the plumbing around, or you may end up with a leak in a line, and it is much easier to stop the flow at the tank than deal with draining it to fix a line...
You will still want one at the OM 4way as well for servicing, unless you place the OM above the water line like this:

Here's a shot of the TUBV's behind the tank, and I had another 4 in the bottom pane...

I think keeping the water IN the tank is a priority, so everywhere the tank had a possible water exit below the water line had a TUBV at the tank

 

[Padrino]

Its in the plan my friend. I just missed it in my diagram but if you look back to the pics with all the ball valves under the tank, you see I purchased enough to do just exactly that!

Good catch. The only thing is i will not have valves directly from the intake as i will not have space. Ill get a pic of the bulkhead and the adapter tonight.

 

[Padrino]

Also if you have a leak in a line, simpliest solution is to temporarily thread a cap into the inside face of the bulkhead within the tank.

 

[jtarmitage]

Its in the plan my friend. I just missed it in my diagram but if you look back to the pics with all the ball valves under the tank, you see I purchased enough to do just exactly that!

Good catch. The only thing is i will not have valves directly from the intake as i will not have space. Ill get a pic of the bulkhead and the adapter tonight.

Ahhh, glad to hear it. I'm glad I had done it that way, as it made changes sooooo much easier, and changes for most of us are a certainty

Also if you have a leak in a line, simpliest solution is to temporarily thread a cap into the inside face of the bulkhead within the tank.

I thought that as well, but after even a few months, getting a cap to screw in and actually seal from inside the tank is extremely challenging, as you get algae growth, sand, etc in the threads and it doesn't like to seal...Been there, tried that....kinda worked

 

[Padrino]

Here are some pictures of the custom bulkhead that was made so that I could feed 2 Abyzz pumps from one 2" bulkhead (which has a 2.25+" hole). Since the intake of the abyzz is 50mm OD the ID is actually very close to 1.5". Therefore if you do the math the area of a 2" hole is larger than that of 2 1.5" holes.

Since I know someone is going to challenge me on this, I'll just do it for you.

Area of 2.25" hole= pi *r2= 3.141592x(2.25x2.25)= 15.904 square inches
Area of 1.5" hole= pi *r2= 3.141592x(1.5x1.5)= 7.068 x2 holes =14.137 square inches

Here are some pics of the custom work,

 

[Taqpol]

I keep looking at that picture and not really understanding what is going on. The bulkhead part looks straight forward, but whats with the drum thing with the two holes in it?

 

[Padrino]

I keep looking at that picture and not really understanding what is going on. The bulkhead part looks straight forward, but whats with the drum thing with the two holes in it?

Alex,
It is made so that I could feed both close loop pumps without starving either of them at any time using one intake location. I decided to add another abyzz pump after the tank was assembled at Miracles anyways I made a solution

 

[Taqpol]

So the drum looking thing will go on the dry side of the tank and the two holes will have pipes feeding the two CL pumps?

 

[Padrino]

So the drum looking thing will go on the dry side of the tank and the two holes will have pipes feeding the two CL pumps?

Correct. I still need to make something for the inside of tank so I can add strainers for the intake

 

[Padrino]

Here is what it looks like assembled on the tank. I ran into a few issues and ran out of parts so I am hoping I can acquire what I need so I can finish the closed loop plumbing this weekend. I used Krylon Fusion to paint the plumbing however painting the spaflex did not go so well and its still not dry almost a week later.

 

[Padrino]

Here is some progress of the plumbing work and where I currently am at with the closed loop circuit.

 

[Padrino]

I took the abyzz pumps a part to glue the custom fittings and true union ball valves on so that there was no way I could make a mistake and damage any internals of the pumps. Though you guys might be interested to see this

 

[canyousee]

Man you do some super clean well organized work,looks so nice. Those DC pumps are so small and compact it is hard to grasp how much water they move using so little energy,I am truly jealous lol. Thanks for all the updates. Mike

 

[Padrino]

Thanks man!

Here are some photos of the closed loop plumbing completed. I'm slowly getting to the finishing of the outside stand. I am just try to finalize how I will finish the top ledge.

 

[dave.m]

Looking good, Padrino. Did you resolve the issues you mentioned earlier on getting the CL inputs and strainers organized?

Dave.M

 

[Padrino]

Not yet I will have to get something machined. But the strainers i plan to use are the big bell ends. Shawn used them on peters tank. These particular ones have a 2" npt female thread. But will require a way to integrate them to the custom bulkhead.

 

[ecomdesign]

Looks great! All that plumbing would usually end up looking like such a mess, but not in this case. So clean and organized! Well done.

Do you plan to add doors to the stand? If so let me know. I'm currently building custom solid maple doors for my kitchen and have all the tools and router bits to make mitered doors with raised panels.

 

[Padrino]

Looks great! All that plumbing would usually end up looking like such a mess, but not in this case. So clean and organized! Well done.

Do you plan to add doors to the stand? If so let me know. I'm currently building custom solid maple doors for my kitchen and have all the tools and router bits to make mitered doors with raised panels.

Mike,
i have to come see you, i do need doors in a few places and that could be beneficial. Ill send you a text during the week maybe.

And thanks for the comments btw
Cheers
Rob