Odd thing happening in QT...

[Scott.h]

Could they be ampipods? I had an outbreak in a frag tank. It wasn't a big deal until they started eating my zoeanthid flesh.

Definitely use gate valves and hard plumbing. In fact with a 300 gallon tank and 8' distance you need a bigger plumbing size such as 2" to keep flow up and head pressure down.

 

[John Holbrook]

My tank is a 265 and my sump is off the the side. I ran pvc for the return and overflow. To me it's easier and I personally think that it will last longer, I've also got unions in, just in case I need to take it apart for some reason.

 

[Bob Escher]

Questions about plumbing...
Today my husband and I took a trip to the hardware store to buy supplies so that we can plumb the tank this weekend. I had decided that I would go with the durso style, since that's what my tank comes with, but that I would cap off one of the returns as an experiment. If I find the flow is sufficient, I'll use the 2nd return to build a herbie style so I can add some redundancy. If not, I'll add a 2nd DC return pump and have 2 separate returns.

Anyway, I digress...

I had decided that I wanted hard plumbing and we bought all the parts, but we ventured to the LFS afterwards to find some gate valves, and my husband decided that he much prefers the idea of flexible hosing.

I'm not keen on the idea, myself, but I'm wonder what people here typically use, and what they find to be the advantages/disadvantages of the two styles. He was looking at using a 1" flex hosing that's meant for pond setups. I'm not convinced of its durability. Would love to hear your thoughts...

I have a combination I hard plumbed from the pump all the way up to about 6 inches from the top of my tank