vol_reefer
New member
Hi all,
Wondering if anyone with experience might be able to offer some plumbing advice. I'm going to be setting up our new "fish room" in the basement over the next few weeks, and am starting to think about the schematic design for the plumbing. The display tank will still be upstairs, but the basement room will contain the sump, chiller, skimmer, a frag tank or two, and a refugium, with other stuff added as room allows. The sump is a 100 gal Rubbermaid tub on the floor. The frag tanks and refigium will probably be set up on utility shelves.
The first-order question I'm wondering about is whether it's better to have the extra tanks (frag tanks and refugium) split off of the drain lines from the display tank, or to split them off the return line from the sump. I think I've seen it done both ways in tanks on RC. On the face of it, it seems like the drain line would make more sense because that keeps the full volume of the return line for water going back up to the display. If I put the extra tanks on a split off the return line, then whatever flow they take out of the return would just loop through those tanks and back into the sump. But I think I also remember reading that it's always a bad idea to put any kind of flow control on a drain line (lest it clog or back up), and I'm not sure I could put the extra tanks on the drain lines without some kind of flow control.
I've seen photos of manifolds that people have used for these kinds of applications - basically, a fat pipe with a bunch of T's coming off it for the different tanks. Are there rules of thumb to follow for using these (so I don't make any dumb mistakes)? I have two drain lines - if I split the extra tanks off of those lines, would I be better off having a separate manifold for each line or would it be safe enough to combine both into a single manifold?
I could also just run a separate pumped circuit out of the sump for the extra tanks (that's how my chiller and skimmer are currently fed in my tank stand), but that seems like needlessly adding an extra pump and the associated heat.
If anyone knows of some good references on best practices for these sorts of things, please let me know.
Many thanks,
Jeff (vol_reefer)
Wondering if anyone with experience might be able to offer some plumbing advice. I'm going to be setting up our new "fish room" in the basement over the next few weeks, and am starting to think about the schematic design for the plumbing. The display tank will still be upstairs, but the basement room will contain the sump, chiller, skimmer, a frag tank or two, and a refugium, with other stuff added as room allows. The sump is a 100 gal Rubbermaid tub on the floor. The frag tanks and refigium will probably be set up on utility shelves.
The first-order question I'm wondering about is whether it's better to have the extra tanks (frag tanks and refugium) split off of the drain lines from the display tank, or to split them off the return line from the sump. I think I've seen it done both ways in tanks on RC. On the face of it, it seems like the drain line would make more sense because that keeps the full volume of the return line for water going back up to the display. If I put the extra tanks on a split off the return line, then whatever flow they take out of the return would just loop through those tanks and back into the sump. But I think I also remember reading that it's always a bad idea to put any kind of flow control on a drain line (lest it clog or back up), and I'm not sure I could put the extra tanks on the drain lines without some kind of flow control.
I've seen photos of manifolds that people have used for these kinds of applications - basically, a fat pipe with a bunch of T's coming off it for the different tanks. Are there rules of thumb to follow for using these (so I don't make any dumb mistakes)? I have two drain lines - if I split the extra tanks off of those lines, would I be better off having a separate manifold for each line or would it be safe enough to combine both into a single manifold?
I could also just run a separate pumped circuit out of the sump for the extra tanks (that's how my chiller and skimmer are currently fed in my tank stand), but that seems like needlessly adding an extra pump and the associated heat.
If anyone knows of some good references on best practices for these sorts of things, please let me know.
Many thanks,
Jeff (vol_reefer)