the 210gallon upgrade thread

[mbaychuk]

Hi I just trimmed the collection cup by 5/16 inch with a cutting blade on a dremmel. It came out perfect and fits, Hope it works after trimming

 

[mbaychuk]

picture of protein skimmer with trimmed collection cup to fit

 

[melev]

Is the skimmer going to be run externally, or does it have to fit in the sump? If the latter, it will rise up a little higher since it has to sit on the glass.

 

[mbaychuk]

It will run externally, the over flow pipe is not complete yet. Waiting till the end of the week until rest of plumping supplies come and my friends brother is cutting me glass for the baffles in the sump. Im planning on 3 or 4 chambers.

 

[purebullet417]

yup will be run external. got all black plumbing for the tank except for the skimmer due to the odd size of pipe but we will paint it black with melevs best friend krylon fusion lol

 

[purebullet417]

not much will be happening until this weekend when we are going to drill the sump and install the baffles. plumbing will come early next week so maby in another week or so we can have the tank running

 

[mbaychuk]

drilled the 2 inch bulk head into 40g sump using 75mm hole saw.

 

[purebullet417]

we pre ordered a blue spotted jawfish and bali tiger striped jawfish at the lfs. we are going to make a cove in the corner of really deep sand so they can all hang out there. we also put on hold a manderine eating frozens

 

[purebullet417]

this is how we plan to do the plumbing. will this work? also do we need to t the line directly to skimmer or can we just controler it with a ball valve

 

[melev]

You have the right idea over all.

For the skimmer though, you have to put a Tee above the plumbing going to the skimmer. This is hard to make out, but you'll see the Tee in the plumbing up above the collection cup, and then some of the water flows across the sump. The reason you do this is so only pure water without airbubbles pours into the skimmer body.

 

[mbaychuk]

If we T the line before the skimmer we will we get enough water flow from a 3/4 inch line?

 

[mbaychuk]

Also got some of the black pvc to start the plumbing and Im picking up the glass baffles for the sump tommorow from my friends brother who cut the glass for me

 

[melev]

Why are the drains 3/4"? Are the returns 1/2"?

 

[purebullet417]

where dose it say that? the drains are 2x 1" and 2x3/4 with 1 going to the skimmer. the returns is 1.5" untill it has to get made to 3/4 to go to the lockline

 

[melev]

The drains are the larger holes, the smaller ones are the returns. So you have 1.5" drains and 1" returns.

From the drainline, you can branch off to the input of the skimmer which I'm guessing is the 3/4" size you referred to.

 

[mbaychuk]

Hi what we are doing is using all the predrilled bulk heads from the all glass aquarium to drain to the sump, so we have 2-1 inch
drains and 2-3/4 inch returns which instead of a return we are using for drains to the sump to increase water flow. We were going to take 1 of the 3/4 inches and feed the protein skimmer is that enough? We are also making our own retrun lines from the return pump come from the back of the tank which will be 1&1/4 inch till it get reduced right at the lock line to 3/4. I guess thats where were the confusion is, all the predrilled holes are being use for drains then 1" and 3/4" and we are making our own return to increase flow.

 

[melev]

If you plumb the skimmer the way I explained it, it should work. Running a line from a drain straight into the skimmer without the Tee bypass and gate valve (not a ball valve), you'll never get that skimmer working as it should.

And remember putting more flow through the sump often results in microbubble issues is the display tank.

 

[mbaychuk]

Hi Melev we are doing exactly what you suggest and about the bubbles we added 9 baffles for 4 chambers to the 40g sump. the chambers go intake,sump,fuge,return.Here are the pictures.

 

[purebullet417]

tank should be completed this week

 

[melev]

You are making good progress.