Plumbing opinion

[mkarston]

Ok, so what do you think of this design for the plumbing of the 65 gal I’m putting together. All questions, comments and criticism is welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Craig

 

[mkarston]

I guess you have to click the black camera icon to see the picture in my gallery.

 

[bckane]

I wouldnt come from the fuge back to the skimmer chamber...I would go right to the main tank

 

[Rogger Castells]

I would like to know what type of aquarium is this set-up for? also, how are you bringing in the water coming from the SCWD? it appears to be coming in through drilled holes if so, you are running a big risk of back flow and potentially flooding the house, ideally you would want to place this inlets over the top of the tank, a one way valve will be ideal as well.
The reason why I asked you about what type of tank you were building is because I notice you are going to be using a wet dry filter as your main sump, wet dry work great with fish only or fish only with live rock systems but will not do well with reef tanks. If you plan to keep corals you may want to remove the bio-balls as this will compete for the ammonia with the live rock and produce mass qty’s of nitrates (not great for corals)

 

[Kewlworm]

Why not split the tank drain into the fuge instead of pumping water to it? Then, you can gravity drain back to your return chamber/sump.

 

[Razor]

I think your pump is way to big for that setup. I would run a smaller pump from the sump to mantain the 3x to 5X turnover rate, and then use another pump for a closed loop with your wave maker.

 

[mkarston]

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I have a few comments / questions I have are:
1. This is going to be a reef tank with a full stack of live rock. I currently have a 90 gal reef that has been established for almost 3 years (there isn’t much in it in the way of corals). I plan to make my 90 into a fish only with some live rock, and take the majority of the live rock from it to put into this new 65 gal I’m setting up
2. As far as the return form the fuge, I was wondering what to do with the return. I didn’t know whether to put it back over the bio-balls, into the skimmer chamber, or back into the return area to get pumped directly back into the main tank.
3. The returns after the SCWD (the powerhead replacements) will connect into something like this to return into the tank.
4. As far as the bio-balls are concerned, I have read many different things regarding this. I know that relying on only bio-balls as the main source of biological filtration is not good, and having too much biological filtration done by bio-balls is not good, but is it bad to have any bio-balls at all?
5. If I split the return to come from the main tank to half directly into the sump and half into the fuge, will it be enough to feed both? Will it be too much water flow through my 10 gal fuge?
6. As for the return pump, if the Gen-X PCX-40 is too powerful of a pump, can it be dialed down using a valve? If not which pump do you suggest? Something like this?
I don’t care for the idea of a closed loop that much simply because I don’t want to have another intake hanging inside my tank. I would much rather the return pump from my sump feed both the main return and the SCWD.

Thanks again for all your help!

Craig

 

[mkarston]

One other thing:

If I do split the return from the main tank to feed both the fuge and the sump, should I then have the overflow from the fuge return before the skimmer or still have it return to the water return area to be pumped back into the main tank?

 

[cubano2480]

 

[Abengochea]

Well as for using the rio pump, Ive heard nothing but trouble out of those. Causing electrical shock in some cases so you might want to steer away from those. As for the pump and plumbing, you want to have a good amount of flow in the tank but not alot through your sump. Thats where people use either a powerhead or some sort of closed loop. Another thing with trying to get one pump for everything is that your tank might not be able to drain the tank as fast as you are pumping water into it. Im not sure what you are using whether it be a drilled tank or hang on which could determine how much drainage you have. Bio balls seem to be a good option for a fish only with live rock tank but if you are going to add corals, you might not want to bother since they will eventually become nitrate factory unless you rinse them out every so often. Seems like just another chore to me. Sorry if i missed anything, I got sidetracked with something else. If i missed anything let me know.

 

[Abengochea]

disreguard the pump section, i see what you mean now that theres a picture posted

 

[Abengochea]

remember that you need to account headloss on the amount of gph you are going to get out of that pump. How are you planning on figuring out how to get exactly 100 gph through the refugium? Are you using a flow meter or just an educated guess. Im thinking of splitting the lines off of my pump and was planning on doing it based on how quick it fills a 1 gallon jug. So if it fills it up in 6 seconds then its 600 gph / fills in 12 seconds its 300 gph / and fills the 1 gallon in 36 seconds then its 100 gph