Plumbing, Am I Doing It Right?

[theMeat]

Yup, you’re not a moron. Members like myself are just sharing knowledge. Are your durso drains adjustable up and down (height)?

 

[CrunchyBananas]

Because the drains are individual overflow boxes, you cannot do a herbie/bean animal drain, just a durso or maggie muffler to silence. You do not ever want to throttle a single drain, one lost snail shell, clump of algae, even just algal growth, will cause your tank to flood over.

You could utilize the return holes as second drains and send your plumbing up the back, but I feel that's less ideal.

Oop, went back a relooked at your drawing, so each box only has one hole and no return bulkhead?

 

[Hugh Mann]

Because the drains are individual overflow boxes, you cannot do a herbie/bean animal drain, just a durso or maggie muffler to silence. You do not ever want to throttle a single drain, one lost snail shell, clump of algae, even just algal growth, will cause your tank to flood over.

You could utilize the return holes as second drains and send your plumbing up the back, but I feel that's less ideal.

Oop, went back a relooked at your drawing, so each box only has one hole and no return bulkhead?

Yup. One hole in each. Corner overflows and the existing holes are right dead center. No room to drill more even if I wanted to. No return bulkhead.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Agree 100% with the advice given re: valves on your drains. Depending on whether or not your return pump is adjustable, you could add a valve there.

@Sean Clark , what's special about the y-design valves?

 

[Hugh Mann]

Yup, you’re not a moron. Members like myself are just sharing knowledge. Are your durso drains adjustable up and down (height)

Sort of. The “T” portion isn’t glued together, so in theory I can adjust it up about 1”. Not down. No idea how one would accomplish that.

 

[Sean Clark]

Agree 100% with the advice given re: valves on your drains. Depending on whether or not your return pump is adjustable, you could add a valve there.

@Sean Clark , what's special about the y-design valves?

They offer less flow resistance over other valve designs at the same pressure. Because of their design they are directional. Way overkill but I like them.

 

[Projects with Sam]

When I was trying to decide on my plumbing I checked-out a ton of people's build threads. It was time consuming but I am really happy with what I came up with.

 

[Freenow54]

Maybe I am just a moron who knows nothing (which the more progress I attempt to make, the more I am realizing this is likely the case). I would’ve sworn I read something about needing valves to moderate flow rates or some such thing.

Fortunately still at the stage nothing is glued together, so easy enough to eliminate them entirely.

I am getting lost in the terminology however if you have your drain / drains set up for anti siphon there is no real need, as long as you can prime the pump after working in the sump. I have various valves put in that I will eventually use with unions. EG> will have to change the pump in the future. Also I do have a shutoff on my drain even though I have anti siphon

. I found that if I use it when I do water changes it prevents water from draining the upper tank to the point that I do have to prime the pump, which is a pain. Others are for various scenarios. I did use ball valves, and as mentioned earlier they freeze sometimes. I do not throttle the flow. I think people do it to reduce the water noise

 

[Dburr1014]

Sort of. The “T” portion isn’t glued together, so in theory I can adjust it up about 1”. Not down. No idea how one would accomplish that.

In the overflow box you don't have to glue anything anyway. To make the pipe taller you can a) buy an adapter to fit another pipe or b) replace the pipe with a longer one.

If your pump is outside the sump and you sometimes have to prime the pump, what happens in a power failure? Does it sometimes drain down so you have to prime it? And what if you're not home?

 

[WVNed]

Please remember this is the internet and you are receiving 50% good advise and 50% hogwash.

My 75 gallon tank has really long drains that run to another room, I have ball valves on both drains so I can keep water in the tank if I wish to work on them and break the unions. Otherwise you have to let the tank drain down to empty the drains. Just because every drain has a valve doesn't mean you have to use it to regulate flow.

Even is you have 2 drains in different boxes they can be different types. The rule that if one plugs the other has to take all the flow still applies.

Keep in mind what the limiting factor for your drain setup is. It could be the drain pipe capacity or it could be the water flow through the weir. With 2 boxes if one drain plugs all the water has to go through the other weir.

With my 180 it states on the tank label the capacity for the drains is 700gph. That isn't much. Less than I have on my 75 now. I will see if I can get more but be cautious about it and test it by plugging one drain at a time.

 

[Freenow54]

Agree 100% with the advice given re: valves on your drains. Depending on whether or not your return pump is adjustable, you could add a valve there.

@Sean Clark , what's special about the y-design valves?

The Y design valve is actually a Gate valve made specifically for flow control

 

[CrunchyBananas]

Yup. One hole in each. Corner overflows and the existing holes are right dead center. No room to drill more even if I wanted to. No return bulkhead.

If that’s the case then valves on the drains aren’t necessary, and if installed they must always stay open. I’ve been seeing a rise of hobbyists adding valves to drains because they see it on bean animal or herbie style drains, but it’s a cardinal rule to never throttle single drain systems. My full time job is designing and installing custom aquariums and filter rooms, so my specialty is not flooding peoples homes and businesses lol

 

[Freenow54]

If that’s the case then valves on the drains aren’t necessary, and if installed they must always stay open. I’ve been seeing a rise of hobbyists adding valves to drains because they see it on bean animal or herbie style drains, but it’s a cardinal rule to never throttle single drain systems. My full time job is designing and installing custom aquariums and filter rooms, so my specialty is not flooding peoples homes and businesses lol

That is a cool career I bought an Apogee meter and am considering following you people around, and setting up the lights lol. Seriously have been trying to figure out how to grow Cheano ( i know not correct spelling ) I tried in sump just get a green algae mess, and dead Chanoe. Where and how do you find it best to grow it?