remote "equipment room" - help me think this through

jacksonpt

New member
As some of you know, I've been in the planning stages of overhauling my 30 for some time now (a bit longer than I had hoped, but I digress...).

Anyways, because of the location of my tank, I'm limited to a stand that is the same footprint as my tank, so I can't run a slightly larger stand to fit a bigger sump and more "stuff". So I'm thinking about running this stuff remotely.

So help me think this through a little...

I'm thinking about moving my sump/fuge/skimmer and my BRS reactors to the next room. I see 2 challenges in doing so: 1) keeping the plumbing between the display and the sump as discrete as possible (assuming I can't run it through the wall to the next room, but still investigating this option), and 2) keeping the sump and reactors visually friendly (the room they will be in is also my office).

My first priority is to keep things accessible. I enjoy working on the tank and puttering with things. But I don't enjoy having to contort myself like a circus freak to get at a reactor or unplug my skimmer when it needs to be cleaned, etc. If I can find a way to run a bigger sump, then even better, but access is the main priority.

Realistically speaking, I'm not sure how much I can do about the plumbing. To get the flow I want, I'm going to have to run 1.5" pipe. And because of the location, I can only hide/cover up part of it. As for the sump/equipment, my first thought is to see if I can find a reasonably attractive cabinet of some sort to enclose things in. My first thought was to look at Lowes for something like a closet cabinet/organizer thing. I could probably find a piece of bedroom furniture (a big dresser/wardrobe type thing) that might work, but I'm trying to keep it cheaper than that.

Since the remote room is on the same floor/level as the display, there shouldn't be much increase in head loss, only from whatever turn in plumbing there are, correct?

Anything else I'm not thinking about, either logistical or functional?
 
Following along as im in the same boat as you but looking to move my plumbing about 4 feet away as right now my dump is under my stand and im limited on space :(
 
Sorry sump

Ha ha, sometimes mine seems like a dump...

I have a sump room that is about 4 feet away and I had to run the plumbing down though the floor and back up into the sump room. one issue with this is that stuff will collect in the bottom of this "trap." Also, while it's nice on your return pump the fact that you don't have much vertical difference between the overflow and the sump means it can be difficult getting much flow. I have to throttle my return pump down about 30%. I'm currently looking into putting my sump room down in the basement partly for the two reasons above and to help with temps this summer.
 
Also, while it's nice on your return pump the fact that you don't have much vertical difference between the overflow and the sump means it can be difficult getting much flow. I have to throttle my return pump down about 30%.

I'm not sure I follow... can you explain?
 
I'm not sure I follow... can you explain?

Right, because I didn't want my sump on the floor, there is about a 12" height difference between the overflow in the DT and the sump inlet. The drain only goes so fast. The overflow can do around 600gph, but I'm maxed out around 350 gph, and run it at maybe 280-300 gph.
 
if you run a controller (event if not) take an extension cord, vut off the female end, and wire it into a plastic outlet box you can surface mount. them run the cord back to your controller or wherever you like. now you can have outlets tucked back in hard to reach spots and control them from an easy to reach spot.

I did this at a friends house for in in-wall where there are 10 outlets mounted inside the framework of the stand (completely out of sight) all wired to (3) PC1s and (3) PC4s off to the side of the tank.
 
One really nice thing about a sump room that is 4 feet away is the convenience of getting to stuff, water changes, dosing, skimmer cleaning, etc. Once it's down a set of stairs, it will be more of a pain.
 
Jackson....

Are you thinking of putting it around the corner behind your desk?
Something that should be considered is the number of pipe bends that will be needed. Each time you have to change the path of the water it will decrease the flow.

JM2C
 
Yes I am, and yes I thought about/wondered about that. I bought a bigger return pump, but that was before I started thinking about this as an option.

Because they are essentially going to be back-to-back with the wall right in between them, it really makes sense to just go through the wall. Just trying to decide if I really want to do that.
 
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