Rev's 400+ Gallon Basement Inwall

mtfish · Jun 2, 2016

revhtree said:
We are not on sewer here we are on a septic and I can't dump the water there. It has to go outside!

I am on septic also. The fish room I have has a dedicated central drain to the outside. I had the house built from the ground up, so when the septic guy was out with his tractor I had him dig a 4 ft x 4 ft hole outside the wall and ran perforated pipe inside the hole and filled it with pea gravel and then covered with dirt. All of my water changes go into this "dry sump" area and does not affect any plants that are on the surface. Just a thought.

anit77 · Jun 2, 2016

Hi Rev,

It looks like there's a pretty steep drop in elevation in the back of the house. Is there a creek?
With the volume of water you're going to be pumping out you'll want to get it as far away from the house as possible. That means to the curb out front or to a creek/runoff out back. If not it will puddle and that means bugs up the wazoo, mosquito heaven! I also don't think it would be a good idea to have the water running out on the ground over the top of the septic tank and salt isn't the best for lawns either. If you're gutter downspouts are connected to drain lines you could connect to one of those as an option too.

For getting the water out of the house. Have you thought about a Brute can and a sump pump? This works good for water changes and from the sink. You can run the waste line from the RO system to the high point of the new plumbing that leads out of the house. I had already put in a sump when I finished my basement but I didn't want to cut up the concrete to run a new line to it when I started putting in my 220 six months ago and this is how I did it. I was fortunate that my sewer line exits the house in my fish room and I'm on city sewer.

I'll update this post with a couple pics from my phone shortly.

anit77 · Jun 2, 2016

The bait tank is going to be pulled out and a utility sink is going to go there. Just using it while I cycled some rock while I was working on other parts of the build. Near the bottom of the 44 gallon Brute I put in a 1-1/2" Banjo bulkhead. I got the sump pump with float from Home Depot for a little over $100. The 3/4" line to the left of the pump discharge pipe is the last fail safe for the RODI storage. If the two floats in one of the 55 gallon barrels fail for some reason the water will drain out the top of the barrels and down that pipe and into the Brute which will then pump it out of the house. On the sewer line, I added the fittings to the cleanout of the main line and put in a check valve to the discharge from the pump.

Hope some of these ideas help!

revhtree · Jun 2, 2016

evolved said:
Ah, that changes things.
Just keep in mind where ever you dump it will be a salt crusted death zone. Nothing will grow there.

It's in the woods!

foxt · Jun 2, 2016

revhtree said:
It's in the woods!

Not making any judgements here, just pointing out that something permanent like a residential floor drain might be required, by code, to terminate in a sanitary system vs. just run to daylight. In my area, the rules are different for garage drains (can run to daylight), and residential floor drains (need to terminate in sanitary sysytem). You're just using the drain for water changes and rodi waste, the next guy may have different ideas.

I like the utility sink / integrated sump + pump idea. You can have the discharge run to your daylight drain, and take the whole thing apart when it's time to sell the house. Sure, you lose the ability to have a floor drain save the day if your tank springs a leak, but if you really want that, you can still take the sump + pump route and just excavate a larger hole in the floor to install the sump at floor level near the tank. You don't need to worry about also excavating a trench, the discharge piping for the pump comes straight up out of the sump and can be run along the walls as someone else mentioned ......

revhtree · Jun 3, 2016

foxt said:
Not making any judgements here, just pointing out that something permanent like a residential floor drain might be required, by code, to terminate in a sanitary system vs. just run to daylight. In my area, the rules are different for garage drains (can run to daylight), and residential floor drains (need to terminate in sanitary sysytem). You're just using the drain for water changes and rodi waste, the next guy may have different ideas.

I like the utility sink / integrated sump + pump idea. You can have the discharge run to your daylight drain, and take the whole thing apart when it's time to sell the house. Sure, you lose the ability to have a floor drain save the day if your tank springs a leak, but if you really want that, you can still take the sump + pump route and just excavate a larger hole in the floor to install the sump at floor level near the tank. You don't need to worry about also excavating a trench, the discharge piping for the pump comes straight up out of the sump and can be run along the walls as someone else mentioned ......

Thanks for that info.

revhtree · Jun 3, 2016

Changing the subject a little....

I want to include some smaller tanks into the tank room. A few for quarantining new fish and one or two for species only tanks. What would you recommend? I don't want to use acrylic because I'm afraid that I will have a tough time keeping them real clean.

mfinn · Jun 3, 2016

Watch for the famous $1 per gallon sales at your local petco. 40b's are always handy, as are 29's.

revhtree · Jun 3, 2016

Good idea!

revhtree · Jun 9, 2016

Well the tank is being built and I hope for some photos today. I need to get busy on getting things ready here. I got my old tank moved here into a temp location and all is well.

I need to start thinking about a return pump to handle the return and a manifold. Any ideas or thoughts? The return pump will be right at tank level or just under.

FrankAbagnale · Jun 9, 2016

Sounds like your build is moving along nicely. Looking forward to the pictures!

rayn · Jun 9, 2016

For the pump, if you are into the ecotech stuff try the vectra. I am running a m1 on mine and amazed at how quiet it is. I had to put my hand in front of the return plumbing just to realize it was on.

Going from a external panworld there is also less evaporation it seems. Maybe less heat.

d2mini · Jun 9, 2016

Another vote for the Vectra.
I have the L1 running on my 120 and it's at about 50 or 55%.
Don't think my overflow can handle more than that. lol
And it's dead silent. Dead.

revhtree · Jun 9, 2016

I am already running the M1 on my 120g right now and I love it. You think the L1 would be enough for say 500g?

evolved · Jun 9, 2016

I'm planning to use an L1 on the next thing. ~320 gallons total. Should be more than enough for you.

ImGood · Jun 9, 2016

I've got a 400g peninsula DT, if it helps, I'm using a RO Regal int 250,in the sump, that has performed very well , easy to install has a small footprint, i haven't used any other brands, so I really have nothing to compare it with, (I don't know if consumers does a comparison) I got mine out of a place in Quebec, shipping was free took 4 days, and have had no unpleasant experiences with it so far. Plus A fluval fx5 for back-up. The tank is 12'x2'x26" two gyre xf/150's. The skimmer is rated to 600 g. With the exchange on your $ it might be worth looking into....