Pics of my weird plumbing

[Cozen89]

Just wanted to post a pic of my plumbing and see if this looks retarded to anyone. Hit a few bumps in the road and this is what we came up with.

The idea is drain from built in corner overflow to skimmer section. Water flows through to fuge (middle section), then to return.

I ended up getting a pump that might be a little stronger than my overflow could handle (mag 9/1 inch PVC drain piping). So I connected a "y" and had 1 return tube going to the back of the tank and the other to a ball valve connected to a pipe going back to the skimmer section. Not sure if this will need to be used yet. Haven't added water and tested the strength of the flow.

What does everyone think? If all looks coo, I'm gonna add water tomorrow. Thanks.


specs of the system in case anyone was wondering:

75 gallon acrylic display
29 gallon glass sump
12" high baffles (might cut the 2nd one down to 10 inches)
Mag 9 return pump
Octopus NW 150 skimmer
1 inch drain pvc piping
.75 eheim return tubing

 

[rsw686]

I thought the skimmer worked best in 6-8 inches of water. Might want to make it a stand.

Also you don't have a bubble trap and you will probably have micro bubbles all through your tank. I have 2 baffles one 10" high and one 8" high in my sump that I pressure fit in there quickly and I have micro bubbles even without the skimmer running. I'd probably cut the second baffle down as well as I think water will just skim over the top of your fuge.

You also probably won't need the y on the return. I have an Ocean Runner 3500 on my 600 GPH rated overflow. It puts out the same flow as a Mag 9 and its the perfect size pump.

I haven't built that many sumps, so before you do anything wait to see what others say. This is just my opinion after building mine, which I need to make adjustments to.

 

[tuberider]

I'd hard plumb the return pump for sure with a union and a ball valve. You skimmer should be O.K. where it is at. As rsw686 said some baffles would be nice too. Looks good though.

 

[Cozen89]

yeah I considered hard plumbing, but it was just more of a headache than I wanted to deal with. The amount of 90's I needed would have cut flow down in half and I didn't want to have to buy an even bigger pump. I've seen many vinyl tube plumbed tanks and they seem to be fine to me. What's the real advantage of hard plumbing anyway?

As for micro bubbles I posted a thread awhile ago asking for sump building advice and after everyone's input that is what the consensus recommended. Either that or people who were in favor of baffles didn't speak up. Something to do with the amount of surface time for the micro bubbles to dissipate. The baffles would just keep them under the surface. So guess I'll just keep my fingers crossed.

 

[Cozen89]

I have 2 baffles one 10" high and one 8" high in my sump that I pressure fit in there quickly and I have micro bubbles even without the skimmer running.I have 2 baffles one 10" high and one 8" high in my sump that I pressure fit in there quickly and I have micro bubbles even without the skimmer running.

Sounds like you're getting bubbles from your drain. Is the flow through your sump too much for a 20 gallon tank?

 

[fishnfst]

Just fill it up with straight ro water or tap water just for a leak test and to make sure everything works the way you want.. That way you can adjust your bypass and fill levels without getting sw everywhere... Once its all dialed in if you used ro water you can start to mix the sw. IF you used tap water dechlorinate it then drain....

This way you can make sure that your drain can handle the max flow of your mag9.. How much surface area does the overflow have? I had problems with just a 1" standpipe and a 750gph return.. The standpipe cou ld barely handle it...

 

[Cozen89]

How much surface area does your overflow have?

It's a built in corner overflow that measures @ 5.5" x 5.5" x 16" tall.

After calculating head loss the mag 9 is cut down to about 650gph according to the head loss calc on this forum. The Y drain is just a precaution at this point.

 

[Elite]

I think your baffles are too high. I would drop them to 8"-10" and add another baffle for the return section. Some skimmer put out a lot of micro bubbles. The distance between your skimmer and return is not that long. Hopefully you won't have micro bubble problem.

For the return, I would use flex PVC pipe then connect to hard PVC pipe. You can clamp the hard PVC pipe to your stand. The flex PVC pipe will help absorbing the viberation of the pump.

Always test for leak with FW. Happen to me once that I forgot to glue one of the connection. After the pump turned on, the pipe came off and shot out about 2-3G of water in less than 2 seconds. The floor is carpet. Took me several hours to dry it out. Good thing it was FW not salt.

 

[Cozen89]

I wish you guys were around to tell me my baffles were too high when i was posting asking this question a few weeks ago =/. Is it too high for the skimmer you say? I'll cut a bit off the 2nd one, but cutting the first one might be a bit of a problem right now.

 

[Elite]

You didn't post plumbing thread here
Here is your thread in the Lighting, Filtration & Other Equipment forum.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1128689&perpage=25&pagenumber=2


The first couple drawing looks pretty good. Don't know why you change it. Those guys saying the baffle doesn't help with micro bubbles because they don't have enough baffles. My ASM skimmer put out quite a bit of micro bubble. My return section is next to the skimmer. I install 4 baffles. No micro bubble in my return. Cheato will help blocking the micro bubble too.

You don't have to cut the first baffle. Just raise your skimmer if it doesn't work correctly. I would cut the second down to 8"-10". If you don't want to add another baffle, you can wait. If you get micro bubble then add one or two.

 

[nasotang]

I'd recommend adding more baffles as-well. Very likely that you'll end up having micro bubbles in your tank. You'll get micro bubbles from your skimmer as well as your drains.

The way you have your refugium placed and the clear vinyl tubing you'll probably end up getting algae growth in the tubes and also probably coralline algae in your skimmer body since your refugium light will shine on them. Just a minor thing, but maybe something you'll want to consider.

The leak test is also a good idea.

 

[Cozen89]

if you guys added a baffle where would you put it? before the 2nd existing baffle I have? as an under over design? or after making it an over under?

The height of the existing baffles is gonna be kind of hard to cut out right now since my PVC drain is now glued. The best I was able to do was drill some teeth in to the 2nd bafle lowering it about an inch.

 

[Elite]

I would put one infront so the water goes under and over the current one but that's just my opinion ..

With the baffle so high, can your sump handle all the water when the power goes out??

I would put the heater in the skimmer section instead the fuge. There is not much water movement in the fuge.

 

[fishnfst]

With a narrow return section and a mag9 hopefully the drain can keep up.. The first sump I built I made the return section a little too small.. Every little change in water volume due to evaporation was compounded by the small return section..

Everyone seems super concerned with microbubbles.. Are they detrimental to the corals health? The reason I ask is I have tons of bubbles in my display tank.. I have a 12g surge into my 55 and it produces alot of bubbles. Everything seems to be doing Ok.. All of my sps have their polyps extended and growth seems good... My zoas have never grown so fast..

 

[Elite]

They just look annoying. If you don't have any problem looking at them, I think they are fine.

I'm sure the return section is fine for that pump.

 

[Cozen89]

the sump is cutting it close in case of a power outage. I calculated it last night and 2 inches off the top of my tank is 9.3 gallons and the sump is 29 gallons with the baffles being 12 inches high in a 18 high tank. So that's like 9.3 gallons of room to spare.

But I thought about the skimmer eating up some real estate so I don't know. I cut some teeth in to the 2nd baffle to lower the water level a bit. I won't really know till I fill up the tank and plumbing which I am doing as I type. A little too close for comfort right now. And I thought sumps were suppose to be a good thing haha. It's just giving me more headache than I thought right now. Hopefully it all works out and I can move on and enjoy my tank.

 

[fishnfst]

It's all a learning experience.. Trial and error is always the best It's not a mistake if you learn from it You'll hopefully only flood your house once before you figure out to leave some leeway

Have you drilled an anti siphon hole on your return plumbing? If your return plumbing is lower than the teeth on your overflow it will backsiphon until your return tube breaks the surface of the water..

 

[Cozen89]

describe how to do an anti siphon on my set up. I know what you mean in terms of the purpose. My return is slightly lower than the overflow teeth, but it would make me feel better just in case.

 

[fishnfst]

Is it plumbed through the backwall of your tank or is it setup like a U tube over the edge.. If its over the edge you want to drill a .125" hole right below your water line or slightly lower but no lower than the teeth on your overflow.. I normally drill the hole on the side of the return pipe that faces the back wall of the tank.. If you drill it too high you will have water continuously spraying out of the hole.. IF its too low then it won't do its job.. YOu just have to find a happy medium.. If its too close to the surface it will occasionally s uck air and blow it out the return.. Probably something you don't want.. Just have to experiment with it.. I'd start pretty close to the bottom of your overflow teeth. Maybe a tad higher..

 

[Cozen89]

My return is a 1 inch bulkhead drilled in to the back of the tank near the top. Do you have a suggestion for this? Thanks for your help, it is appreciated.