drummereef
Team RC
Can you explain how everything is plumbed there?
Starting Over (Literally) - My upgrade to 270G
- Thread starter kelhuffman
- Start date
tony13
New member
Great job on the up stairs, the flow of everything is perfect. Basement sump rooms are the best, mine looks alittle like yours and would love to see a close up of the rubbermaid sump setup. How do you have the overflow going into the sump and what are you doing to prevent microbubbles from going back up to the main tank? I have a filter sock on mine but would love to get rid of it because I'm lazy and don't like having to clean them. 
kelhuffman
Premium Member
Thanks everyone. Considering my carpentry skills were acquired while doing this project I'm pretty pleased with the result. I had to do a number of do-overs, particularly with trim, but nothing too major.
The plumbing from the tank splits three ways...it goes into the 100G frag tank and also into the 20G cheatmorpha tank that will become a dsb soon. The third drain is directly into the rubbermaid if I need to bypass both intermediary tanks for some reason. I don't have an issue with microbubbles. That could be because I use a blueline pump at the same size as a iwaki md55 so the flow isn't massive. I also have the primary return bulkhead at the bottom of the sump and inside the sump I have a 90 turn UP. So the water flows up to the surface and dissipates the bubbles there. I also use a powerhead in the sump to create circular flow which drives the return water away from the return pump intake and to the skimmer first.
I should probably take some pics of my plumbing etc., though I don't think anything I'm doing is all that unique. The sump is setup exactly the same way I had it in the old house for 4 years. I found that it worked really well so I only made a few minor changes to the setup when I moved. One was to create that strange wooden power strip mount with the holes in it. Its off the wall so that I can hide all the excess cords behind it, and the holes serve to hang plugs in place when I unplug things for service.
I haven't paid a lot of attention to fine tuning the gear in the sump room yet, e.g. where its mounted etc. For now its working. I run a Euro 8-3+ that I modified with the second pump some years ago. It works as well as any skimmer I've seen, though I'm still debating whether its time to get a much bigger one. Given the expense of the new large ones, I'm still not sure that's a wise investment. Wouldn't it be nice to "borrow" a large new H&S,Euro or Deltec and run it side by side against mine? I wish.
The plumbing from the tank splits three ways...it goes into the 100G frag tank and also into the 20G cheatmorpha tank that will become a dsb soon. The third drain is directly into the rubbermaid if I need to bypass both intermediary tanks for some reason. I don't have an issue with microbubbles. That could be because I use a blueline pump at the same size as a iwaki md55 so the flow isn't massive. I also have the primary return bulkhead at the bottom of the sump and inside the sump I have a 90 turn UP. So the water flows up to the surface and dissipates the bubbles there. I also use a powerhead in the sump to create circular flow which drives the return water away from the return pump intake and to the skimmer first.
I should probably take some pics of my plumbing etc., though I don't think anything I'm doing is all that unique. The sump is setup exactly the same way I had it in the old house for 4 years. I found that it worked really well so I only made a few minor changes to the setup when I moved. One was to create that strange wooden power strip mount with the holes in it. Its off the wall so that I can hide all the excess cords behind it, and the holes serve to hang plugs in place when I unplug things for service.
I haven't paid a lot of attention to fine tuning the gear in the sump room yet, e.g. where its mounted etc. For now its working. I run a Euro 8-3+ that I modified with the second pump some years ago. It works as well as any skimmer I've seen, though I'm still debating whether its time to get a much bigger one. Given the expense of the new large ones, I'm still not sure that's a wise investment. Wouldn't it be nice to "borrow" a large new H&S,Euro or Deltec and run it side by side against mine? I wish.
drummereef
Team RC
Awesome! Thanks for the explanation - helps when I'm lookin at the pics.
kelhuffman
Premium Member
Thanks all! Now I need more "limited edition" frags! hint hint. I have some pics to post drummereef and will get them uploaded shortly. Just a few pics of the sump setup.
kelhuffman
Premium Member
drummereef here's some gear shots for your viewing displeasure. Tough to get the shot, but the water is coming into the sump and flowing up to the surface using a 90 degree elbow. There is a powerhead keeping the water going around anti-clockwise so the flow goes directly to the skimmer first.
The skimmer is a modified Euro 8-3. I added another sedra some years ago. For now I don't think its worth paying $1,000 or more for a larger one as this thing produces plenty of skimmate. But we'll see. Maybe I'll ad another smaller one to use for ozone dosing.
This is my janky powerstrip holder. I have the xtra cords stuffed behing the board and thread the plugs thru the holes so when I unplug things they just hang there and don't drop to the floor or into the sump.
The skimmer is a modified Euro 8-3. I added another sedra some years ago. For now I don't think its worth paying $1,000 or more for a larger one as this thing produces plenty of skimmate. But we'll see. Maybe I'll ad another smaller one to use for ozone dosing.
This is my janky powerstrip holder. I have the xtra cords stuffed behing the board and thread the plugs thru the holes so when I unplug things they just hang there and don't drop to the floor or into the sump.
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kelhuffman
Premium Member
About half the rubbermaid sump is covered with the shelf where I keep various gear. The calcium reactor and the phospate/carbon reactor are both from MRC. The reactor in particular has been great and has worked flawlessly for years. Much easier than the korallin it replaced.
kelhuffman
Premium Member
dannyw, yeah i pinched the idea from others on RC. Just a 4"Wx5"D box on each side of the external overflow. Could be done internally just as easily. The pumps are mounted by pressing their nozzles into the hole drilled into the tank and then using an extra piece of soft pvc/spa flex tube to wedge between the back of the pump and the glass. Hard to take pics with it all set up but I can try
The flow rate is more than enough with the pumps on one side, but what's a challenge is getting turbulance as the pumps obviously aren't pointing toward each other.
The flow rate is more than enough with the pumps on one side, but what's a challenge is getting turbulance as the pumps obviously aren't pointing toward each other.
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