Plumbing question

[aaronn]

I'm in the process of a very slow build and I am trying to finalize my plumbing plans. I have a 170 gallon rimless Peninsula tank that will be on the 1st floor. I am setting up a fish room in the basement in a room directly below the tank. I will be doing a bean animal style drain. My plan is to split the siphon line and the open line. I have a custom built trigger system ruby sump. I want to plum the siphon line into a Thielling roller mat and then into the sump. I know that I will be limited to about 600 gph on that drain. The open drain I am planning on feeding into a 70 gallon tank that is my current display tank. I will be using the 70 as a deep sand bed and macro algae refugium. The 70 will then feed into the sump into a independent chamber that will be either a frag section or I my stack in marine pure blocks. My question is on the open line going into the 70. I am thinking about setting up an algae scrubber. My concern is that I will be restricting the flow on the system by having the algae scrubber in place. Any input would be greatly appreciated. And here are a few photos for reference

 

[Brew12]

What are you planning for as far as total flow through the sump?
I'm also curious why you are setting this up as a bean animal. I'm guessing noise isn't an issue since it will be in the basement and you must be planning on much more flow through the open drain than a typical bean animal.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Put in a tee with a valve to feed the algae scrubber, with the remaining water flowing into the 70.

On a build note, the 2x4 stand in the picture above has the screws supporting the weight. You will want to add "support" legs to that stand. In this picture, it's the purple colored legs.

 

[aaronn]

I am doing a bean Animal drain. I know I will be restricted on the siphon drain because of the roller mat system. My gut is telling me not to restrict the open drain with an algae scrubber because I do expect stronger flow then normal on that pipe. My 70 has a single 1" drain that I will plum into the sump. I am also going to convert the 3/4" return line into an emergency drain, just in case.

 

[Brew12]

I am doing a bean Animal drain. I know I will be restricted on the siphon drain because of the roller mat system. My gut is telling me not to restrict the open drain with an algae scrubber because I do expect stronger flow then normal on that pipe. My 70 has a single 1" drain that I will plum into the sump. I am also going to convert the 3/4" return line into an emergency drain, just in case.

I think you will be ok with that concept. Even if the algae scrubber does block flow, that is why the bean animal has the emergency drain. I think it will be tricky managing your flows but everything should work. Is your thought to set up the full siphon to within the limits of the roller and use the DC pump to control flow through the algae scrubber on the open drain?

 

[aaronn]

Thanks redfish that is a good idea to just tee it off. I'm going to plum right from the ceiling over the top of the tank to feed it. I have all the room needed to do that. And yes I have already added the additional supports into the tank. I only have a photo of the first step in the build

 

[aaronn]

That DC pump in the photo is a vectra l1. That is going to be my main return pump. I'm now thinking that I could do a gate valve at the end of the algae scrubber and tune it down just enough to ensure good flow thru the scrubber