Need help plumbing drain line for in-wall aquarium

[jtwatkins22]

Hello I’m currently installing an aquarium in my wall and need some help with the plumbing as I am stuck. Hopefully I have some fellow reefers out there that would like to take part on this journey with me because I could sure use some wisdom.



I have a 220 gallon custom tank drilled at one end to give me 3 viewing sides. I have a 40 gallon diy sump filter and will be setting this up for fresh water with the intentions to convert to salt in several years.



I will be housing a Fly River turtle in this tank so will need to do more water changes than what you might expect with a typical fish aquarium and this is where the problem is. Since I will be doing a lot of water changes I would like to avoid running a bunch of hoses every time (I also have 3 small kids). Since my tank location is not near a sewage line I have 2 options. Option #1- Chip up some floor to access sewage line or option #2- run a new sewage/drain line up 8 feet and over to connect to original sewage line.



I planned to do option #2, but not sure if this will work since it doesn’t look like many other people have done this before or posted about it. So, I am reaching out to see if you have any suggestions or if anyone has experience with something similar to this.



I was planning to use a strong external pump that would give me enough head pressure to suck water out of tank, through the pump, up 8 feet into ceiling and over to sewer line. Obviously I would need to close the return lines while doing this, but would this work or is there a better way to go about without ripping up more tile and concrete? Thanks so much for any suggestions and I will be sure to update everyone with the progress.

 

[blaxsun]

Q: The sewage line (pipe) and tank are on the same level, yes?

 

[jtwatkins22]

Thanks for the response! So if you look at the 2nd picture notice the yellow line I marked. This is the original sewage pipe and the red is the drain line that I taped into with. So what I’m proposing is coming out of tank and pushed up 8 feet and over into the sewage pipe. Hope this makes sense and I can show more pictures if needed.

 

[jtwatkins22]

Thanks for the response! So if you look at the 2nd picture notice the yellow line I marked. This is the original sewage pipe and the red is the drain line that I taped into with. So what I’m proposing is coming out of tank and pushed up 8 feet and over into the sewage pipe. Hope this makes sense and I can show more pictures if needed.

But yes they are both on the same floor

 

[Fishnut]

Any chance there is a laundry sink on this level behind the tank wall?

 

[jtwatkins22]

Any chance there is a laundry sink on this level behind the tank wall?

No plumbing on the tank wall. Also no crawl space under house so either I go up the wall and over to the sink/sewage drain or chip up a bunch of tile and concrete floor to pitch down to sewage drain.

 

[Fishnut]

Can you locate the tank at the end of the island next to the drain line? If that is out of the question I would just use buckets for water changes. Other options are just too much work for this lazy reefer.