Plumbing a second display beneath the main display with a remote sump?

[Tub Life]

Hey,

I am in the beginning stages of setting up my new display. It is located on my main floor with a remote sump located in the basement crawlspace. While I have grown partial to my colony of BTAs, I am now thinking that I don't want to dedicate that much real estate for them in the main display anymore.

Would it be feasible to plumb a separate display for them below the main display? The main display has 3 drains (primary full siphon drain, secondary drip drain and third emergency drain). My thoughts were that I could have the secondary drain line empty into the second tank in the stand, and have that tank drain back into the remote sump. Essentially having the secondary tank in-line of the secondary drain running from main display to remote sump.

Does that make sense?
Does that sound doable?

Thanks.

 

[Tub Life]

here's a crude diagram to illustrate.
The blue line is the secondary drain.

 

[Zoa.Mania]

I feel like this lower tank would suffer from low water turnover rate or will become a nutrients trap because most of what should have got to the sump will end up there.

Does it sound doable? I think so.. But I think you'll have to get this lower tank a secondary emergency drain in case the main gets clogged for some reason.

Make sure you have enough volume in the sump for both tanks draining there during power outage. If not make sure the water height in the lower tank is just above the overflow line, in that case almost nothing will drain to the sump in a power outage.

 

[World Citizen]

If the sump is at the same height as the anemone tank, you wil have flow problems.
The sump has no gravity weight on the drain to the sump.
So the water will just slowly flow true the pipe. If you put a pump in your sump to pump back water in your anemone tank, the drain wil not keep up. This is because there is no gravity.

You would need te maken 3 or 4 drains from the anemone tank to the sump, or search for every cm that makes your sump sit lower as your anemone tank.

In short:
Horizontal flow is very very very limited in drain setups.

 

[tsharpe291]

here's a crude diagram to illustrate.
The blue line is the secondary drain.

I essentially have the same setup but I don’t drain the main tank into the second, I feed it with a smaller secondary return pump and drain them both into one remote sump into the basement

 

[Tub Life]

I feel like this lower tank would suffer from low water turnover rate or will become a nutrients trap because most of what should have got to the sump will end up there.

Does it sound doable? I think so.. But I think you'll have to get this lower tank a secondary emergency drain in case the main gets clogged for some reason.

Make sure you have enough volume in the sump for both tanks draining there during power outage. If not make sure the water height in the lower tank is just above the overflow line, in that case almost nothing will drain to the sump in a power outage.

low turn over rate... from using the secondary trickle drain to feed it, agreed. I guess teeing off the main drain is probably a no no? or perhaps I can tee off the main displays return line and at least get an acceptable flow going into the secondary tank?

If the sump is at the same height as the anemone tank, you wil have flow problems.
The sump has no gravity weight on the drain to the sump.
So the water will just slowly flow true the pipe. If you put a pump in your sump to pump back water in your anemone tank, the drain wil not keep up. This is because there is no gravity.

You would need te maken 3 or 4 drains from the anemone tank to the sump, or search for every cm that makes your sump sit lower as your anemone tank.

In short:
Horizontal flow is very very very limited in drain setups.

sump is below both the secondary tank, it's in the basement, I'll attach a new diagram to illustrate better. so this should resolve the concerns you mention correct?

I essentially have the same setup but I don’t drain the main tank into the second, I feed it with a smaller secondary return pump and drain them both into one remote sump into the basement

I should be able to tee off the main display's return lines to feed the Anemone tank instead of feeding it from the main tanks drain.

 

[twentyleagues]

Couple ways to do this depending on the overflow volume in the Anemone tank.
1. drain display to the anemone tank trickle and emergency to sump. Anemone tank to sump if it has a back up drain and or emergency to sump.
2 split your return pump line between the 2 tanks and have both drain to sump.

12 years ago I had a 120 and a 125 display tanks on the main floor a 90 display in the basement bottom of the tank was 5' off the floor, a 75ish display fuge also at about eye level, 3 100g stock tanks as the sump on the basement floor. All that was run off 1 reefflo hammerhead pump. The pump sent water up to the two displays upstairs and they both drained down to the 90 and 75 which drained to the sump system.

 

[World Citizen]

sump is below both the secondary tank, it's in the basement, I'll attach a new diagram to illustrate better. so this should resolve the concerns you mention correct?

Yes! That solves the problem.

 

[Zoa.Mania]

low turn over rate... from using the secondary trickle drain to feed it, agreed. I guess teeing off the main drain is probably a no no? or perhaps I can tee off the main displays return line and at least get an acceptable flow going into the secondary tank?

Spliting the return is way better. If you’re using a DC pumped on the return add one valve to one of the splits to control the flow rate. If you’re using an AC pump add a valve to each of the splits.

 

[RandyL]

You may want to consider the diameter of tubing, especially feeding up from your sump back to your main display. Now that you’re trying to increase your flow rate to accommodate the 2nd tank, if the tubing is 1” or less, head pressure may become more of an issue. You might consider expanding the diameter of that line if it’s on the smaller side.