Plumbing question for water exchange

[undbulsu]

I am setting up a Red Sea Reefer 450. I have a mixing station in the basement and will be running three pipes up to the aquarium.

1. A drain pipe attached to a submersible pump to drain water from the aquarium.

2. A pipe from the salt water mixing tank to the aquarium to refill during a water exchange

3. A RO/DI line to refill the ATO

My main questions are how to terminate each of these at the aquarium room.

Should the drain line be such that I can attach something like a python for gravel cleaning? Or just have a permanent pipe that removes water from the sump?

Should the salt water refill pipe be similarly hard plumbed, or would it be better to have a terminal that I can hook a flexible hose to and use the hose to fill the tank and sump?

Anyone have pics on how they set up their water exchange plumbing at the aquarium?

 

[snulma1]

I would add a valve between the pump and your pipe for the drain line, otherwise if your drain is below the level of the pump you will continue to siphon water.

The termination part I think is personal preference, you can make a simple U shaped piping to empty into the tank, you can buy something...etc.

As for the tank drain and refill. If you can start a simple siphon in the tank, you can use a single drain line to drain the tank, and just attache some flexible hose so you can clean the sandbed, then remove the flex hose (or keep it depending on its location) and attach and turn on the pump in your basement to bring up the new clean water via the same pipe. (Hope I'm explaining that well, and this also allows you to only use 1 pump vs. 2 (1 to drain and 1 to return)).

 

[woodnaquanut]

For water removal, I just have a 'T' off the return line. Return pump takes care of removal. I don't have a basement (you're so lucky!) so I have to either carry or pump water out. When I want to gravel vac I just siphon into a filter sock the sump.

If you are going to hard plumb any of the three, IMHO, you should do them all.

Edit:
As snulma1 said, you could use the drain as a fill line too.

 

[billdogg]

I hard plumbed my refill line to the tank using a mag18 in my 55g mix barrel. (it is my topoff during the week, salt mix on waterchange day) It ends with a standard spigot that goes to the sump. I use a $10 remote control electric switch to turn the water on and off but always close the spigot to avoid siphoning back to the basement. To drain water, I always use my python siphon to the laundry sink so that I can clean in the tank easily.

 

[kgtipton87]

For water removal, I just have a 'T' off the return line. Return pump takes care of removal. I don't have a basement (you're so lucky!) so I have to either carry or pump water out. When I want to gravel vac I just siphon into a filter sock the sump.

If you are going to hard plumb any of the three, IMHO, you should do them all.

Edit:
As snulma1 said, you could use the drain as a fill line too.

So when you vacuum your gravel you don't remove any of the water? Instead you are filtering the water through a filter sock in your sump?

 

[skeeter_ca]

I have all three of my lines hard plumbed through about 50' of 3/8" poly hose. I have anti-siphon breaks in the barrels on the ATO and ASW so it will not siphon once the pump shuts off. Right now I can plug in the ATO pump to the float switch in the sump to maintain correct levels. When I do a water change i unplug the ATO pump and then shut the return pump off then plug in the evac pump that removes water from the sump. I then plug the ASW pump into the float switch and it fills the sump back up and shuts off.

 

[Indymann99]

My system, might give you some ideas.