Plumbing..

[thisiscmd]

Caution: This is a noobie question...

Can anyone tell me what the usual practice is as far as which kind of PVC piping to use when plumbing to sumps? I do not know whether to go flexible or rigid.

Furthermore, if anyone knows of any useful sites pertaining to plumbing sumps and what not that would be appreciated.
Thanks!

 

[jvetter]

Plain old sch40 PVC works good. Grey sch80 looks wonderful, but is completely unnecessary for most aquarium applications. Spaflex hose sold at home centers is nice and glues up like rigid PVC. Flexible or rigid makes no difference really other than aesthetics. I like the look of rigid pvc over flex. There is an art form to a clean simple looking plumbing job. If you tend to sling the purple primer on everything, the flex hose may look better because of less joints.

What are you trying to do?

 

[thisiscmd]

Plans...

Plans...

Basically, I'm stealing melev's F-sump design off of his website to use underneath my 145 gallon tank.

The plumbing I am referring to is that which connects the tank to the sump and vice versa. I have two holes drilled with an overflow box to feed the sump and one return hole. (All 1")

To make things a little more complicated, one of the holes draining to the sump will have a valve on it, as the two holes will have piping which are offset depth wise. This design was done by the LFS; they claimed it reduces on noise. (Gurgling and such). The valve is used to keep the lower pipe constricted enough to have the level of the water just at the brim of the higher pipe. I think this is common practice and you will understand what I'm saying. I hope so anways, because it's definitely hard to explain. LOL

I also plan on splitting the return from the sump to the show tank so that I can keep my flow through the sump down. I have a mag12 I'm using to return the water from the sump. The water has to travel at least 4 or 5 feet to get up to the return hole that is drilled. This means the mag12 will probably push a little over 1000 GPH. Since Melev recommends at most about 4 or 5x the total water volume thru the sump, I would want a little less than 1000 GPH. So I will split the return such that I have unrestricted flow up to the show tank, and a valve on the other piping going back into the sump. This will allow the mag12 to push an optimal amount of water, while at the same time keeping the flow through the sump to a level I want.

To make a short story way too long, these are my plans.

Do you have any good advice?
Are 90 degree angles ok when plumbing, or do they restrict flow.
Any comments are appreciated.

 

[coreno16]

Your plans sound very good. I'd also highly recommend the whole valve on the downpipe deal that your lfs suggested. I just got my 20 High refuge/sump running and i split the return to run to each side. I put a bv after each side of the t and i drilled a 2nd hole in my overflow for the emergancy drain. I assure you that it makes the overflow SILENT. Anyways your plans sound solid. Also, try to avoid 90s where ever possible. 2 45s are quite a bit less restrictive. GoodLuck

 

[jvetter]

I am not sure I completely understand what you are saying, but I will go with my interpretation.

It sounds like you are splitting off the effluent from your pump and sending it back to the sump. If so, I would send all the effluent from the pump back to the display tank in order to maximize flow in your display. Having more flow in the display tank is more important than having the proper amount of flow in the tank.

When plumbing in your pump, a good policy is to increase the pipe size one size up to reduce friction losses. For example, if the pump comes with a 1/2" output use 3/4" plumbing. Same on the suction side.

Also, always install a true union ball valve on the suction and discharge of the pump. This will make it easier to service the pump without having to cut your plumbing.

Hope this helps.

Elbows are fine especially if you follow my larger pipe size recommendation.

 

[coreno16]

Here's a thread regarding what hes looking at doing for the drain

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=344892

 

[thisiscmd]

Hmm

Hmm

It sounds like you are splitting off the effluent from your pump and sending it back to the sump. If so, I would send all the effluent from the pump back to the display tank in order to maximize flow in your display. Having more flow in the display tank is more important than having the proper amount of flow in the tank.

I want the proper flow in the sump though. Also, flow for the show tank is important, but I can use powerheads, which I planned on, to keep that high.

 

[coreno16]

What your looking at doing for the return is fine and is a very effective way to control the flow without restricting the pump. Also be sure you put a union on the pump as stated above for easy removal. However, in the case of a return pump a true union bv isnt necessary seeing as your line will drain when the pump stops anyways. Good luck

 

[thisiscmd]

Here is a pic of the sump I will build...

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f366/thisiscmd/Sump/sumpf.jpg

I will have 2 sets of PVC piping going to my sump. One will have considerably heavier flow than the other given that the one set higher in the overflow box has less water flowing just over the brim compared to the other completely submerged pipe. Given the design, which as you can see in the pics is...

INTAKE ---> RETURN <--- REFUGIUM

I need water going into both sides of the sump. I'm wondering if I should send one pipe to the intake and the other to the refugium or should I combine them and send them both to one place. Or finally, should I combine them, and then split them again and send them separately to both the refugium and the intake section which holds the skimmer. This last option will allow equal water to be dispersed to each side.

Whaddaya think?!?!??

 

[jvetter]

The sump that you have illustrated has baffles on the left side that are intended to prevent microbubbles from getting to your pump and then into your display tank. I would run the lines coming from the tank into the left chamber as those lines will likely have a lot of air in them from the overflows. Also the effluent from your skimmer would go into this chamber as well.

Tee off your pump on the discharge side and divert some of the flow to the refugium (make sure you put a tee in for flow control). This is different from what I said earlier, but now I better understand what you are going for.

Also, you will not regret using a true union ball valve on both sides of the pump if you are going to use an external pump.

 

[gvibes]

Wouldn't just buying a smaller-capacity pump save on energy costs in the long run?

 

[coreno16]

Yes, If you do not have your mag 12 yet id highly suggest getting an eheim pump. Get the highest rated one, which pushes around 1000 gph. I'm not sure what the exact model number is. I could take pics of my sump for you, but I'm not exactly sure how to post pics. If someone would be willing to help me, I'd be more than happy to show you what i did.