plumbing : could this work?

[esr209]

I have a 120 long (60x18x26) I'm trying to plumb. The tank came with a hole on the lower right wall, curious if I could plumb the tank with one pipe running down from there with an airline tube at the top of a t. Also would be adding an overflow wall in front of it, this will be a peninsula style tank..

 

[esr209]

http://i1345.photobucket.com/albums/p663/esr209/IMAG2104_zps4b7c3bc8.jpg.

Rough sketch

 

[esr209]

http://i1345.photobucket.com/albums/p663/esr209/IMAG2103_zps09d0ae07.jpg

This is the tank itself

 

[Reefer54]

Run your drain pipe up the inside of the tank, because if you have a power outage or component failure, you risk gravity draining your tank to that point.

 

[Reefer54]

Are you going to have a sump? The size of the sump will determine the height below the water level your drain opening can be.

 

[esr209]

I may just use a Rubbermaid container, I figure 4x20x18 = around ten gallons, I will make sure I have at least that much room in the sump. I'm mainly concerned about a gurgling noise, would this overflow create that?

 

[esr209]

Comes out to 6.23 gallons on overflow side, I won't add any pipe, I should be fine with that part of the plumbing, just woried about noise now. Would the airline stop any gurgling and just give me a full siphon, should I do anything different, I don't plan on drilling any more holes into this tank. Thank you

 

[jamie_mercer]

run your drain pipe up the inside of the tank, because if you have a power outage or component failure, you risk gravity draining your tank to that point.

+1

 

[Reefer54]

Get as big of a sump as you possibly can. Gallon conversion/calculator ..... LxWxH/231= gallons. 4x 20x 8 = just over 6 gallons. get bigger. I would personally suggest no less than 1/3 of the size of your tank. I run a 75g display with a 75g sump. After displacement and the lower water level in the sump in case the display overflows, i am only really running a total volume of around 125g.

Then gurgling noise......check the plumbing and diy threads. There are a myriad of options for plumbing. I suggest that so you dont have to worry about 120 gallons of water on the floor, excuse me.....114. IMO You really should have another 2 holes drilled in the tank and run a herbie style. You really can do whatever you want. RESEARCH before you jump in.

Get some books. Sprung, Calfo, Fenner, and others have a plethora of hardcover and softcover information. read em 2x.

 

[jamie_mercer]

Depending on your stock list I would run two drains if at all possible. The extra drain capacity should eliminate the gurgling and should one become clogged you would have redundancy in the other to prevent your return pump flooding your display, house, etc

 

[esr209]

I am going to use a 30 gallon sump, I was just saying that the sump would be able to contain the remaining water from behind the baffle if power did go out. I may be doing this tank freshwater, so no snails to worry about, and I'm going to put slits in the top of a piece of acrylic for the overflow wall, so that should prevent fish/ plant from getting to the drain, I'm planning in 2" pvc, with gate valve to control flow, thank you for all suggestions and ideas, I may have to get another couple holes drilled...