To Use or Not to Use Egg Crate?

[Ron Reefman]

Ron, I know you are very experienced so I'm calling you out in any way shape or form but I am asking for others as well. The PVC "S" return line from the he sump with multiple holes in it, does it have a hole above the water line or directly under it in the event of power loss so it won't back siphon your whole tank? I assume it does but didn't see mention of it and it's an important safety factor for someone else who might be interested in doing something similar.

Corey

Calling me out? You meant 'not calling me out', right? Asking a very good question isn't calling me out. It's a great point and I'm glad you asked. BTW, I lived in Columbus for about 20 years before I moved here.

I do have an anti-siphon hole/fitting on each of the spray bars. I drill a hole big enough so I can force/thread in a john guest elbow (small fitting like you would use on an RO/DI system). I use ones that are threaded at one end. I drill the hole in the side of the return pipe as close to the water surface as possible. With the john guest elbow in the side of the pipe, I can now swivel the outlet up or down. I run mine so they are just at the water's surface. That causes some agitation on the surface which improves air/water transfer of oxygen into the water and CO2 out of the water. It also sets the anti-siphon where it breaks the siphon almost as soon as I shut the pump off. My water level only goes down about 3/4" in the tank.

One other benefit it that snails don't tend to hang out on the end of the john guest elbow. I have had them block a simple hole in the return pipe and not allow a siphon break.

Very clever on the pvc cave Ron Reefman!!!

Thanks. My Scribbled Rabbitfish and my Yellow Tang sleep in there together at night. :fish1:

 

[biecacka]

Yes. Not calling you out!:lol: I ran a similar set up in the past and I just wanted to provide a little extra info on that for others.

Where at in Columbus??

Corey

 

[Irishman360]

I drilled a small hole in the end of the pvc pipe and tied it to the egg crate with a small cable tie.

Here is a shot of the tank all plumbed and running with 'test' water. You can see the egg crate platforms (one even has a 2nd level) and the 6" pvc pipe cave. The plumbing over the top of the tank is a closed loop with an OceanMotion and Revolution heads. The OceanMotion runs 3 of the outlets and the one that is 'off' will move to the next pipe every 15 seconds. The Revolution heads go down with water pressure from the flow and 'float' back up with trapped air when there is no water pressure. Each time they move down or up they rotate about 12 degree so the nozzles never point at the same area two times in a row and a full cycle takes 15 minutes. The square 'S' shape pipes down the back glass (a bit difficult to pick out of the... mess?) is the return from the sump. It's just pvc pipe with lots of small holes drilled in at different angles so return water will spray out from behind the LR wall and keep the LR clean. There are 2 and they alternate back and forth. The linelock outlets on the bottom front are the return lines from the chiller which is out behind the house in a plastic shelter. There are also 2 extra drains at the back of the tank. One feeds the closed loop and the other feeds the skimmer by gravity only with an internal pump just for circulation and air mixing.




This is what the tank looked like about 6 months ago, shortly after I did a major fragging event to make room for a lot of new corals. I had about 25 really big colonies (the Hollywood Stunner was almost 20" in diameter). After I greatly reduced the size of the colonies I added about 40 new corals. And I have since added some rock and coral at the outer edge of the big pvc pipe cave so you don't see the pipe unless you look inside with a flashlight.

Do you have a build thread on your tank? I would like to see how your tubes are set up so I can get an idea when I do my build.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Yes. Not calling you out!:lol: I ran a similar set up in the past and I just wanted to provide a little extra info on that for others.

Where at in Columbus??

Corey

Just north east of I-275 and High Street off Flint Rd. I wasn't into this hobby back then... I raced sports cars at Mid-Ohio instead. Talk about expensive hobbies!

Do you have a build thread on your tank? I would like to see how your tubes are set up so I can get an idea when I do my build.

No build thread here on RC. I have one on our local club website/forum. But they have changed the software which caused some issues and I've pulled photos from PhotoBucket so most of them are missing. Here is a link:
http://www.swfmas.com/forum/index.p...stem/page__p__39121__fromsearch__1#entry39121

But I'm more than willing to answer questions about it and even dig up old build photos again.

Beausoleiljacob, I don't want to hijack your thread, is this OK with you?:beer: