Yellow_donkey
New member
Hello everyone, so I currently have a 30-gallon, 24x24x12 lagoon style reef, coming up on 1 year old now and everything is really taking off, coral growth wise, really nice looking. However, my space is limited where I have my current tank and the only upgrade possible in that space is to go up so I grabbed a 24x24x24, doubling my 30-gallon lagoon to a 60-gallon cube.
I am very excited to get this new tank up and going (have all my salt, have all of my RODI made), as I have already went through the wall behind the tank and into the guest bedroom closet which is my "fish closet." For a current 30-gallon tank I have 40-gallon breeder sump and so much cool stuff going on with cheato lighting, UV, PS, dosing, Siporax column and reactor, three concurrent 10-(A) micron socks, etc. the darn "fish closet" is a hobby within itself aside from the tank.
My current tank even though it has a corner overflow column, I installed my own plumbing kit as I wanted a high water line, within 0.25 inches from top and I do this with a simple 1" adjustable height PVC union (pulls up and down to adjust) topped with a simple 3-way. This gives me 2 water out flow points behind the weir, for surface skimming. This is also zero noise as I drilled the top of the 3-way and inserted a 12" length of airline tubing in blue that goes just to the water line inside the 3-way to supply air and eliminate the need for the fixture to suck and make noise.
So with this new tank I did not buy it reef ready (to save money, plus everything I do is DIY anyways) and having drilled two other tanks in my past I will drilling this new tank. My question is, I have 24 inches wide to work with and I got two, 1" bulkheads I plan to place on either side and a single 3/4" bulkhead with loc'nossle which I plan on placing at the center of the tank and slightly lower than drains. I am a liverock minimalist, so the center return won't matter.
I will have no weir and no boxes, these will be just 1" overflow drains on the back glass on either side with strainers. I dislike boxes and weirs as they take up space and make too much noise unless modified. This is the route I will be going and am looking for help from anyone with some suggestions who has done something similar or even used boxes and drilled the back glass.
Finally to the question, since these two, 1" bulkheads will be fixed and will determine my water line, I do plan on adding ball valves at a later time if I need to finetune the level, although I hope to get the water level close to ideal with bulkhead placement alone. At want position should I place the two drains from the top of the tank, at 400 to 500-gallon measured return pump force into the tank, I am having a hard time visualizing the amount of flow that will exiting through the vertically mounted drains and how much of the drains will be under the water line.
Worse case, I can extend a 1" nipple of PVC into the tank and add an adjustable height elbow or 3-way again that I can move up or down to adjust the water height, but I am hoping to avoid this and use the ball valve(s) or best case, the bulkheads give me the desired height alone.
Sorry for the long post but I usually do a lot of planning when I get into these types of Projects and want to be as prepared as possible for this one.
I am very excited to get this new tank up and going (have all my salt, have all of my RODI made), as I have already went through the wall behind the tank and into the guest bedroom closet which is my "fish closet." For a current 30-gallon tank I have 40-gallon breeder sump and so much cool stuff going on with cheato lighting, UV, PS, dosing, Siporax column and reactor, three concurrent 10-(A) micron socks, etc. the darn "fish closet" is a hobby within itself aside from the tank.
My current tank even though it has a corner overflow column, I installed my own plumbing kit as I wanted a high water line, within 0.25 inches from top and I do this with a simple 1" adjustable height PVC union (pulls up and down to adjust) topped with a simple 3-way. This gives me 2 water out flow points behind the weir, for surface skimming. This is also zero noise as I drilled the top of the 3-way and inserted a 12" length of airline tubing in blue that goes just to the water line inside the 3-way to supply air and eliminate the need for the fixture to suck and make noise.
So with this new tank I did not buy it reef ready (to save money, plus everything I do is DIY anyways) and having drilled two other tanks in my past I will drilling this new tank. My question is, I have 24 inches wide to work with and I got two, 1" bulkheads I plan to place on either side and a single 3/4" bulkhead with loc'nossle which I plan on placing at the center of the tank and slightly lower than drains. I am a liverock minimalist, so the center return won't matter.
I will have no weir and no boxes, these will be just 1" overflow drains on the back glass on either side with strainers. I dislike boxes and weirs as they take up space and make too much noise unless modified. This is the route I will be going and am looking for help from anyone with some suggestions who has done something similar or even used boxes and drilled the back glass.
Finally to the question, since these two, 1" bulkheads will be fixed and will determine my water line, I do plan on adding ball valves at a later time if I need to finetune the level, although I hope to get the water level close to ideal with bulkhead placement alone. At want position should I place the two drains from the top of the tank, at 400 to 500-gallon measured return pump force into the tank, I am having a hard time visualizing the amount of flow that will exiting through the vertically mounted drains and how much of the drains will be under the water line.
Worse case, I can extend a 1" nipple of PVC into the tank and add an adjustable height elbow or 3-way again that I can move up or down to adjust the water height, but I am hoping to avoid this and use the ball valve(s) or best case, the bulkheads give me the desired height alone.
Sorry for the long post but I usually do a lot of planning when I get into these types of Projects and want to be as prepared as possible for this one.
