Plumbing !!!

[arotbart]

Ok. So I have had my system running for just about 2 years. It is time to change out the miracle mud in my sump/refugium, and that means I have to drain the sump.
So, I had been thinking about redoing the plumbing at the same time and started to think, and it occurred to me that I have not seen many posts that are specific to the plumbing topic.

I am a lawyer by trade, so this is the furthest thing to me. But I thought it would be a great idea to see some of the intricate plumbing works, diagrams, explanation, etc. in part to show and in part to educate. I mean one thing I know I wish I had, was more movement through my system. One of my issues is that I had to put a ball valve on my return pump and keep it pretty closed because (i) my tank does not drain fast enough to have the pump pull the water through the sump and back up and (ii) as I open the ball valve more, the sump gets too low....so, I have standard 1" lines and two corner overflows on my standard 180. What can be done to achieve what I want?

anyhow thought this would a good place to start.

 

[Kworker]

Movement through the ENTIRE system does not really have any benefit unless you have a skimmer that can keep up with the flow. Generally just keep it at around your skimmers GPH rating and its perfectly fine. I dont feel the GPH rule through the entire system based on tank size really makes any sense. Think about it, as long as your skimmer is working efficiently why should it?

Get you're flow through powerhead's within your display tank. I made the mistake in starting my tank to try and run a lot through my system to avoid doing powerheads in the Display tank. It did not work well and I happily have 2 large powerheads now, with a little over 5x Display tank volume GPH. Than about 1,500 gph within the Display tank.

EDIT: That 5x flow is the entire system. My pump is 300gph in the sump.

 

[bobbyM]

I always use durso pipes. Take the 1 inch out to 1.1/4 inch tee, street 90, and a plug on the top. drill a tinny hole in the plug. If it makes noise make the hole larger till it's quiet. Each drain can handle around 950 gph. if your return pump exceeds 2,000gph throttle it down and buy a couple MP40's.

 

[bobbyM]

Movement through the ENTIRE system does not really have any benefit unless you have a skimmer that can keep up with the flow. Generally just keep it at around your skimmers GPH rating and its perfectly fine. I dont feel the GPH rule through the entire system based on tank size really makes any sense. Think about it, as long as your skimmer is working efficiently why should it?

Get you're flow through powerhead's within your display tank. I made the mistake in starting my tank to try and run a lot through my system to avoid doing powerheads in the Display tank. It did not work well and I happily have 2 large powerheads now, with a little over 5x Display tank volume GPH. Than about 1,500 gph within the Display tank.

EDIT: That 5x flow is the entire system. My pump is 300gph in the sump.

Agreed! I like to have about 10x Display

 

[arotbart]

Ok..this is what I am talking about...That is great I was thinking of adding larger pipes, but I would love to see photos.....dursos, herbies, these are like a foreign language to me....

 

[bobbyM]

Here are my only photo's of a durso drain. In these pictures I am moding Marineland's stock return line so it's quiet. The drain is fairly well done, if they put the hole to let air out on the right side. There always needs to be a hole over the down tube of the drain to let air escape or you get a lot of noise.

A syphon break on the return line helps your sump from overflowing when the pump is off. I have to extend the syphon break so when the tank is running there is no splash. Then when the pump goes off the syphon break is exposed and air kills the syphon.

Sorry. I wish I had better photo's of the durso drain. But, I do not.

 

[Soarksi]

So you are saying to drill a hole in the top of the open ended 90 on the return ?

 

[NanaReefer]

On the inside so when the water level lowers it breaks the back wards siphon so your sump doesn't over flow.

 

[Reefing Madness]

So you are saying to drill a hole in the top of the open ended 90 on the return ?

How does a sump work? | Melev's Reef

 

[SloppyJ]

I just setup my new tank using a herbie drain. So far I love it. I have been leak testing it in my garage for the past few days. I wanted a clean look on the outside of the tank because it's going in my living room. I have no external plumbing. It's all hidden in my overflow and sump. I have 1 1" full siphon drain that's sitting 6" below the water level. I have 1-1" emergency drain that's right at water level. The other pipe you see is my return.

In the sump, I put a gate valve on my siphon line so I could dial it back to achieve a full siphon. Always use gate valves where you can because they are much easier and consistent than ball valves. The emergency is straight into the sump. I tee'd off of my return to feed my fuge. So far it works great.

 

[Soarksi]

Oh ok sounds good, I took a marine land corner-flo kit and adapted it to my oceanic 172 bow , I'm repiping everything since the existing piping was shot