Pete's 210 build
- Thread starter P.Kelly
- Start date
P.Kelly
New member
August 2, 2008 - Mario and Luigi are my friends
Today was the start of plumbing. After weeks of rounding up plumbing supply and a two day trip across Sacramento to find the last bits, I got started.
I completed 1 drain, and worked on the other. Made some parts for my skimmer and a cradle for my UV sterilizer. I'll post more pictures tomorrow.
The output of the skimmer is 50mm, and so 1.5" or 2" won't fit. I didn't care for the junky adapter that came with the skimmer, so I fab'd my own today. I routed down the end of a 1.5" sch 80 pipe to slip a sch 40 50mm end over it.
Then glued it up.
This will go through a bulkhead into my sump, and the following piece will complete the skimmer drain on the inside of the sump:
The right side overflow will drain into the refugium like this:
Glued up in place with a Cepex true union ball valve for regulating flow through the refgium. I'm going to target about 200gph on this side.
More coming in the AM.
Today was the start of plumbing. After weeks of rounding up plumbing supply and a two day trip across Sacramento to find the last bits, I got started.
I completed 1 drain, and worked on the other. Made some parts for my skimmer and a cradle for my UV sterilizer. I'll post more pictures tomorrow.
The output of the skimmer is 50mm, and so 1.5" or 2" won't fit. I didn't care for the junky adapter that came with the skimmer, so I fab'd my own today. I routed down the end of a 1.5" sch 80 pipe to slip a sch 40 50mm end over it.
Then glued it up.
This will go through a bulkhead into my sump, and the following piece will complete the skimmer drain on the inside of the sump:
The right side overflow will drain into the refugium like this:
Glued up in place with a Cepex true union ball valve for regulating flow through the refgium. I'm going to target about 200gph on this side.
More coming in the AM.
P.Kelly
New member
I'm thinking it will take a while to "finish." Thanks for the compliment.
Yup, but keep the mishaps to a minimum. I had one tonight, glued up some unions without the flanges on the pipe already. This involved about $50 in true-union ball valves. Luckily, I was able to wrench them apart before the glue set, send the gunk off and try it again, the right way.
August 3, 2008 - More plumbing... Will it never end?
One fish...
Three fish... Got these Cepex TUBV from Bulk Reef Supply. I'm building a manifold for the two reactors and an extra valve for...
Thanks Jim, for the awesome idea. I love the manifold. It will be a tight fit under my tank, and I think I'll need to strap the free end up to a cross member, as this sucker is heavy, but I love the concept.
I'll be able to use the third nipple to acclimate fish, drain water, and make a mess on the floor of my stand.
P.Kelly
New member
I built this little stand last night for my UV sterilizer to sit "on top" of the bubble baffle in my sump, so I can make better use of the limited space I have.
Here it is in place. I'm not sure if I'm going to attach it more permanently; probably not. I like to be able to easily take things apart and re-use them without having to unglue stuff.
I've temporarily run the right side return with flex vinyl. I'm not sure if it will stay this way, or get hard plumbed. The tubing is in the way of where my refugium light will go. Oops. Hadn't considered that problem yet. Thanks Barb!
Left side drain line
This side is a little more complicated than the right. It will feed my skimmer and the sump. I've angled the drain at 45' to start the decent to the skimmer. I also added a union for where the "rest" of the drain water will head into the sump directly.
The flex PVC (thanks Anthony) will head toward the skimmer inlet. There is a TUBV on the skimmer inlet to control the speed of the water through the skimmer.
This is my first foray with flex PVC. I hope it works as planned.
This is the intake to the skimmer.
You can see my custom metric to standard PVC converter I built, in place.
Here it is in place. I'm not sure if I'm going to attach it more permanently; probably not. I like to be able to easily take things apart and re-use them without having to unglue stuff.
I've temporarily run the right side return with flex vinyl. I'm not sure if it will stay this way, or get hard plumbed. The tubing is in the way of where my refugium light will go. Oops. Hadn't considered that problem yet. Thanks Barb!
Left side drain line
This side is a little more complicated than the right. It will feed my skimmer and the sump. I've angled the drain at 45' to start the decent to the skimmer. I also added a union for where the "rest" of the drain water will head into the sump directly.
The flex PVC (thanks Anthony) will head toward the skimmer inlet. There is a TUBV on the skimmer inlet to control the speed of the water through the skimmer.
This is my first foray with flex PVC. I hope it works as planned.
This is the intake to the skimmer.
You can see my custom metric to standard PVC converter I built, in place.
P.Kelly
New member
I sealed the gaps in the stand on the left side with silicon. Hopefully this will keep the press-board from getting wet and deforming.
Skimmer
Well, I went and did it. I cut the skimmer outlet tube to size and glued it up tonight. Now there is no going back.
I also used a bunch more teflon tape and straightened out the venturi on the pump intake. I still think this is a ghetto solution to an engineering/production problem that Reeflo/Sequence should have made right, but whatever, it's not like I spent close to a thousand dollars on the skimmer.
Oh, wait...
Here it is. Hope I didn't screw it up.
In place.
Tada...
Another oops... Maybe?
Barb, you're killing me. Think happy thoughts. Goos-fa-bwa.
So I added this TUBV to slow the flow down through the refugium, but that means that this overflow will drain at about half or 1/3 the rate of the other overflow. Isn't that going to be a problem? I mean, it's not going to be catastrophic, but this overflow will always be totally full of water. The weir isn't going to do any good under normal circumstances, where as the other overflow should have a small gap in height between the back of the weir and the water level in the overflow.
jtarmitage
Active member
Not sure I follow that last comment on the Whoops, Pete. If you're draining water into that section of the sump, it has to go somewhere....
P.Kelly
New member
I'm concerned that because one drain (pipe) will be restricted to about 200-300 gph, and the other one will not (600+ gph) that it will create some problems at the top of the overflow in the tank? Not big problems, but that the weir on the overflow (double walled overflow) will effectively do nothing, as the water potentially flowing into the slower overflow will be filling the tank faster than it can drain. 600+300=900 gph in theory that I will be pumping into the tank. So, in order to maintain a small gap between the overflow and the water level in the overflow, both would need to drain 450gph or more (I think), but since one will drain slower, the "gap" between the overflow and the water level in the overflow will just fill up.
Maybe I'm just sleep deprived... Let me know what you think.
P.Kelly
New member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13083698#post13083698 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jim_S
Looking good PeteI'm glad to see it coming along
Yeah, if you need to hold them up w/a strap or something, I would highly recommend it.
They don't NEED it, but with the torque that that weight will put on the overflow, it's probably a really good idea. Any suggestions on good looking strapping?
What are you going to do? Did I miss out on the new, coolest idea in plumbing?
jtarmitage
Active member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13083841#post13083841 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by petes97
I'm concerned that because one drain (pipe) will be restricted to about 200-300 gph, and the other one will not (600+ gph) that it will create some problems at the top of the overflow in the tank? Not big problems, but that the weir on the overflow (double walled overflow) will effectively do nothing, as the water potentially flowing into the slower overflow will be filling the tank faster than it can drain. 600+300=900 gph in theory that I will be pumping into the tank. So, in order to maintain a small gap between the overflow and the water level in the overflow, both would need to drain 450gph or more (I think), but since one will drain slower, the "gap" between the overflow and the water level in the overflow will just fill up.
Maybe I'm just sleep deprived... Let me know what you think.
Provided the left hand water level is as pictured, and there is water draining from the right hand weir, then logic would tell us that the water level in the right weir will be lower than that in the tank, assuming that the left hand drain line is not at capacity. If it clogs, you've got a whole other problem.
But, if you want to circumvent this whole scenario, simply T off the right drain line, with 2-300 gph going to the fuge, and the surplus flowing to another section of the sump. A little more work, but better now than later.
jtarmitage
Active member
There's enough space, but you'll have to get creative, and use elbows. You mentioned that drain being in the way, so 1 option is to 45 it back toward the wall, T it, and have the non-fuge/overflow line run back behind the stand brace, and have the fuge drain come back just over the top of the fuge, leaving nearly the entire area above open for the lighting. You'll add friction to the drain line, but so what, it's not affecting the pump efficiency. Just a thought, but you'll be able to do better as you stare at it and figure out what'll work.
P.Kelly
New member
Quick update on the water params:
Ammonia (API) - 0 ppm
Nitrite (API) - < .5 ppm
Nitrate (API) - ~ 15 ppm
I'd say that is pretty close to a cycle in 2 weeks. I expect I'll see the Nitrite hit zero within the next 24 hours and then it's time for a water change and a test to see how fast the tank processes ammonia.
Ammonia (API) - 0 ppm
Nitrite (API) - < .5 ppm
Nitrate (API) - ~ 15 ppm
I'd say that is pretty close to a cycle in 2 weeks. I expect I'll see the Nitrite hit zero within the next 24 hours and then it's time for a water change and a test to see how fast the tank processes ammonia.
Similar threads
