Building reef tank...

Nyx101 · Nov 17, 2018

lapin said:
One of the pictures has a diagram of the parts . At the bottom it has product instructions in one of the pictures. Not great but it does have water height. So you want the skimmer to sit in 6.3 to 7.9 inches of water.

Great thanks

it’s not THAT noisy but I got a noise sensitive bf. I’ll get a silicone pad too.

lapin · Nov 17, 2018

Looks like you have it plumbed correctly. I would not change the pump or anything for now. The overflow design is not designed to be fail safe and too much flow will be an issue. If your tank needs more flow a in tank power head or 2 will work just fine. The hard pvc plumbing from the overflow box to the sump needs to be glued with pvc cement. But the last pipe into the sock does not unless it wont stay put. You might have to remove it to change the sock. Do not glue the pvc pieces inside the overflow box. You might need to remove them for cleaning.

lapin · Nov 17, 2018

Noise cancelling head phones for his xmas stocking. hihihihihi

Nyx101 · Nov 17, 2018

Ill get him a drone, he won’t even notice a waterfall after that

Reef-junky · Nov 17, 2018

I would change that to a Herbie style overflow and then for the return run a pipe up and over the top.

http://gmacreef.com/herbie-overflow-reef-tank-plumbing-method-basics/

You can buy or make something like this

Reef-junky · Nov 17, 2018

What brand is the pump?

Nyx101 · Nov 17, 2018

Reef-junky said:
I would change that to a Herbie style overflow and then for the return run a pipe up and over the top.

http://gmacreef.com/herbie-overflow-reef-tank-plumbing-method-basics/

You can buy or make something like this

I sort of fail to see why though. I like the neat look.

Reef-junky · Nov 17, 2018

Nyx101 said:
The return pump is 660 gph for 92g I think for now will be decent. All I want is to get water in ASAP but I guess I’ll develop pvc gluing skills first. Thanks all I’ll hold em tight to prevent expansion. Though wondering if I could use something else rather than glue to secure them. For easy cleaning. Any ideas?

Take your time in this hobby

Reef-junky · Nov 17, 2018

Nyx101 said:
I sort of fail to see why though. I like the neat look.

For one thing a Herbie style overflow has a built in fail safe. It will also be dead silent. It wouldn’t really take that much work to change it. Herbie and bean animal overflow flows are the best set ups you can have. All you would be changing is the pipes inside the overflow the overflow box would stay.

Nyx101 · Nov 17, 2018

Reef-junky said:
For one thing a Herbie style overflow has a built in fail safe. It will also be dead silent. It wouldn’t really take that much work to change it. Herbie and bean animal overflow flows are the best set ups you can have.

But if the water gets low or the pump fails wouldn’t it just stop the filtration? I get that I should get an auto top off to prevent dry running the pump.

Reef-junky · Nov 17, 2018

Depending on how much water is in the return section you can overflow the Display tank. You pump would run dry if the overflow got plugged. The only to stop that would be to make a kill switch with float valves.

Nyx101 · Nov 17, 2018

But wouldn’t it be safe to say that keeping an eye on water level is the priority? The overflow section is very narrow and the sump has 32g capacity. Also it has 3 levels I would think it unlikely to overflow the display I’m more concerned if water getting too low

Reef-junky · Nov 17, 2018

Nyx101 said:
But wouldn’t it be safe to say that keeping an eye on water level is the priority? The overflow section is very narrow and the sump has 32g capacity

The whole sump wouldn’t get emptied out just the return section. If the drain plugs that you have now water has nowhere to go except the display tank. The other two styles of overflow use an emergency drain as a back up and they will start to make noise if they get plugged alerting you to that fact. The problem becomes if the pipe plugs and you don’t notice or are not around. This is all you would be doing. People change these overflows all the time.

Nyx101 · Nov 17, 2018

Got it. But I’m done spending atm and am a tidy person I’ll keep these pipes in check

Reef-junky · Nov 17, 2018

You can get PVC from any hardware store for 2 or 3 dollars. After you put water in it will be much more of a pain to change it so I would do it before you fill the tank. The most expensive part would be the valve at $15.

Captain Quint · Nov 17, 2018

Nyx101 said:
Great thanks it’s not THAT noisy but I got a noise sensitive bf. I’ll get a silicone pad too.

Welcome aboard and congrats on a nice tank with sump for your first build. Looks like you are off to a great start Nyx101

A small section of a new bathtub rubber mat works good as well to set the skimmer on.

It is good to get a spray bottle and mix white distilled vinegar and RODI fresh water at ~50/50 to clean with. It is one of our best friends in the hobby.

Dry fitting the plumbing is great and it appears you have done so and the advice from lapin is spot on about the PVC. IME I've found it good to have some fine sandpaper around the edges of the hard plumbing. prime, then cement and it sets nicely.

Reef-junky has some valid points on the easy switch to Herbie style but whatever you are most comfortable with really.

Looking forward to the journey.

Nyx101 · Nov 17, 2018

Reef-junky said:
You can get PVC from any hardware store for 2 or 3 dollars. After you put water in it will be much more of a pain to change it so I would do it before you fill the tank. The most expensive part would be the valve.

Oh how I despise murphy’s Law -.-