Pastey's 200DD

[Pastey]

Made it home with no incidents. The cleaning and tear down start soon. This tank's dimensions are phenomenal. I couldn't see going with something else.

 

[Pastey]

My uber-professional plumbing diagram:
I made a "drawing" of my idea

Took advantage of a local hardware store's tax free weekend today and picked up some plumbing materials/tools.

10' of 1" ID line, 4 ball valves (threaded), 4 unions (valves and unions for maintenance sake), a 90 degree "Y" and 2 45's to split the drain into the skimmer section between both socks, some 90s, PVC primer/cement, trusty Teflon tape and a PVC cutter (good for a bit over 2"). I know I'll be going back to get things I either got wrong or forgot entirely but this will get me started.

There were some bulkheads (pictured below) that I'd like to use for the 3 drains into the sump. Anyone happen to know where to buy them or what they're called?

Lastly, ill need to get 4 new bulkheads for the return and drain stand pipes. I may be able to use the previous owner's drain piping. It's 2" and then goes down to 1" right before the bulkhead. Any reason I should change it? Also, one was taller than the other. Any reason for that or did I miss something?

BH:

Any pointers would be helpful. I've never plumbed a tank so anything I can get before I start cementing would be priceless

 

[Pastey]

Made a small adjustment to the plumbing diagram. Noticed that if I plumbed that way, the refugium section of the sump would get 1/2 the flow from the DT rendering it pretty much useless (as a refugium). Instead, I will pipe it to the other side of the sump to the skimmer section and tee off for the refugium with a ball valve shortly after so I can dial in the amount of flow that I want.

 

[worm5406]

Return's being taller than the other:

unless someone could not cut/measure, one might be as an emergency encase the other gets blocked.

 

[Pastey]

Thanks to some guys on a local reef forum, I'm moving ahead with plans/changes/upgrades.

Where I'm at right now....

I'm ditching the (2)Mag9.5 returns in lieu of a single Dart/Snapper hybrid. This means I can not use the current hole or bulkhead that came in/with the sump. I'm going to patch the existing hole and drill a new (larger) hole. The Reeflo has a 2" inlet that is 3.19" high. 2" bulkhead means I'll need a 2.8" hole with 3.85" of room for the bulkhead and gasket.

I also made some corrections/adjustments to my plumbing concept. I decided to stick with the dual dursos but I can't dedicate one entire drain to refugium because it would create too much flow rendering my fuge worthless. To correct this, I'll pipe both drains into the skimmer section and use a tee/ball valve on my return to supply the fuge. This allows me to adjust the flow to maximize the fuge's capability. I also decided to add a spare tee that will be unused (at first) in case I ever want to add a manifold, ATS or something else in the future. I'd rather add that now instead of having a bunch of wires and extra pumps laying around and cluttering things up.

I will have to return the cheapo ball valves I bought because they're FPT and the MPT/Slip adapters take up precious vertical room. With only 25 vertical inches to work with, every inch counts. I'll be adding ball valves and unions on each drain/return directy before the bulkheads that lead into the overflows for a few reasons. One, because I'll be doing a full wet test/tune before the tank goes in the house and that means I'll need to be able to break it completely down and reassemble. Two, because I want to be able to remove the sump without draining the tank should I ever need to. Easier to drain 20gallons than it is to drain 200.

 

[Pastey]

Meant to add the re-adjusted plumbing sketch:

Also cleaned the sump up last night while I had it out taking measurements:

 

[Pastey]

Got 90% of the plumbing mocked up yesterday. I'm not really happy with having 90s on the drain but I didn't have any choices. The Monterrey stands are just so short, it doesn't leave much room. Here are some pictures of the progress. I also cleaned the tank with vinegar today while I was at it. Bought some lights that ill link to a switch for under the stand so I can always see what I'm doing bit I won't be installing them until the tank is in the house. Ordering the new pump next week so I can finalize the plumbing. JT, let me know when you have time to help me patch up my sump and drill the new hole. Once I get the pump and vibration pad in and can make a definite measurement, ill be ready. Still need to get some acrylic weld-on but that's no big deal.

Ready to get this thing filled up and turning water over so I can move on to the next aspect. Sand/rock, powerheads and skimmer.

Drain pipes:

Returns and drains:

 

[Pastey]

Built the stand that will hold my saltwater mixing station and replaced all the hinges on the canopy and stand. The mixing station still needs a few more braces and some paint but I ran out of lumber after I decided to add to the design. The open areas on top are to run piping to connect the freshwater reservoir on top to the saltwater mixing reservoir on bottom. The salt reservoir will use one of my mag9.5s that I have to circulate the water and also pump water into a brute trashcan on wheels for water changes.

Hinges next to each other

Slowly but surely

 

[GroktheCube]

I'd strongly recommend having dry backup drains in the overflows, and just running the return over the back of the bank. Better safe than sorry.

How do you like the monterey series canopy? I have the stand and absolutely love it, been contemplating getting the matching canopy.

 

[Pastey]

I had considered a lot of plumbing options but I believe 2 independent durso standpipes will be able to keep up with ~600gph and even one SHOULD be able to (probably not quietly). This is sort of like having a back-up and I know "The more fail-safes, the better" but I don't see any reason this can't be done safely (barring some really terrible luck like 2 plugged drains).

I ordered the Reeflo pump, union ball valve and some uni-seals (for the fresh/saltwater storage). Hopefully, I'll have it for this weekend so I can do a full bore wet test. If I don't like a single drain's capability to handle the flow, I'll likely make some modifications and include a redundant drain and go with putting the returns up and over the back.

 

[GroktheCube]

Make sure you close one of them up completely while testing to make sure the other can handle the flow.

Having a dry backup just seems like a good idea to me, since there is no chance of it getting clogged until after water starts flowing through it.

 

[Pastey]

I'm going to throw every bad situation I can think of at the returns. I am going to test each individual drain at varying flow rates to see where that limit is for flow.

Even if you have a completely dry stand-pipe, a snail can still get in it Highly unlikely though. Thanks for your consideration and advice.

 

[Pastey]

Picked up some more lumber and finished my fresh/saltwater storage and mixing station stand:

Also grabbed a 4'x8' sheet of PVC panel that I'm going to use to waterproof the bottom of my stand. I'll glue sheets to the bottom and lower frame of the stand and then caulk it to create a ~48x36x5" waterproof liner in case of spills and saltcreep.

 

[Pastey]

Thanks Richard for the skimmer!

Won't be able to fit. Skimmer BARELY fits with enough room for cup removal

Got home from the Wet Works Free Frag Fest and got to work on the stand lining. Ran out of liquid nail so I didn't finish but I made some progress.

Still have to finish cutting the side panels, glue them down and then caulk all the joints.

 

[Pastey]

Finished it up yesterday afternoon:

 

[Pastey]

Starting cementing PVC last night. Got one full drain line done and got started on one of the returns. My goal was to get the 2 lines with the most distance between them done as they connect to the sump. The other drain is a simple line/90 combo. I have to be honest....I don't like plumbing at all. Especially when there is SO little room and ever 1/16th of an inch matters as to whether or not something will even fit properly. I see why some people choose Spa-flex over hard lining but, in the end, I'll be happier with it plumbed this way.

Got the pump in place and the outlet was making my life a living hell. I think I got it figured out but, until it's in, nothing in certain.

The drain line was in the process of being cemented:

This is the return pluming I started on but did not finish last night. In this picture, nothing is cemented:

 

[Pastey]

More little stuff arrived.
Cepex ball valve
2" bulkhead to plum the external pump
6 uni-seals to plumb the saltwater mixing station
Vibration insulating pad for the pump

Arriving today
One more pad for the pump (I forgot to order 2)
Reeflo pump

Got the pump feed glued and the new hole marked off on the sump. Got some of the piping painted (more to do) and I got the egg-crate cut to shape. Realized that my skimmer section of the sump is not deep enough and I will need to add some height to the baffle to raise the depth to 8.5" for the skimmer.

 

[saltysailor2329]

I just finished building my 200g DD and it is in the cycling process as we speak. I built my own stand because the stock stands are just so small and there wasn't enough room underneath to do everything I wanted to do. Let me know if I can help in any way.

thanks.

 

[Pastey]

Tell me about it. That stand is made for children and little people. The plumbing was a pain having zero vertical room to play with. Next week, I modify my sump a bit and then put it all back together for it's first wet test. So long as my plumbing is OK (little/no noise, emergency tests), I'll tear it back down, line the bottom of the stand with something softer and then move it into the house and await delivery of sand/rock, heaters, powerheads and new LEDs (replacing the ones that came with the tank and using old ones for QT).

 

[Pastey]

This weekend's work.

Have to order 1 uniseal to finish up and put the sight glass on the bottom barrel.