Where do i begin??..

[RoryJ]

Ready to start plumbing my tank, but i dont know where to begin. I see so many different ways to do it, whats right for me and i dont want to mess up...any help would greatly be appreciated...110 deep blue reef ready with wet/dry and will be a FOWLR

 

[Ty Hamatake]

What are your plans? Plumbing can be super simple (overflow drain and a return) or extremely complicated (multiple drains/returns, various manifolds for reactors etc, directing water to a refugium, and the list goes on). Do you have an idea of what you want to end up with?

 

[RoryJ]

What are your plans? Plumbing can be super simple (overflow drain and a return) or extremely complicated (multiple drains/returns, various manifolds for reactors etc, directing water to a refugium, and the list goes on). Do you have an idea of what you want to end up with?

Thanks for the reply, FOWLR with a Wet/Dry, going to eventually add an insump skimmer and whatever else i may need

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/aquarium-plumbing-101.74207/

 

[Ty Hamatake]

Well, I used sch 40 pvc for my overflow drain and some flex tubing for my return. Two things I would strongly suggest would be quick disconnects placed smartly to make installation/removal/maintenance easy, and a gate valve (more expensive but much easier to use than a ball valve) on your drain.

 

[RoryJ]

Well, I used sch 40 pvc for my overflow drain and some flex tubing for my return. Two things I would strongly suggest would be quick disconnects placed smartly to make installation/removal/maintenance easy, and a gate valve (more expensive but much easier to use than a ball valve) on your drain.

Any chance I could see a pic of your system??...just for a visual reference

 

[Ty Hamatake]

Any chance I could see a pic of your system??...just for a visual reference

Sure thing. Mine is quite honestly as simple as it gets. The pictures were taken while I was leak checking it so this is just the plumbing.

 

[RoryJ]

Does anyone else have pics of plumbing I can see, trying to get visual refereneces for my build

 

[sbash]

This is how I did my main system...

Here is my overflow. The plumbing is not inside the overflow box yet. The first pipe is full siphon, the middle is emergency (99.999% of the time it is dry), the third is the backup from the siphon. The third also has a durso style air hole at the top to prevent a siphon during normal operation. This line is curved into the overflow box at just the right height to create a siphon in the event of the water level rising (emergency). Also, I had to add some flex tubing to the return line to help prevent back siphoning when the pumps get shut off.

Here is my roughed in sump plumbing. You can see the two return pumps clearly. The random seemingly random T on the one return line is for easy water changes (there is a valve with flex tubing going into my house's sump to discard the water easily). The three closest to the camera are the overflows, which I cut after taking this picture and added union valves. The installation did not turn out quite as clean as I wanted, but it works perfectly.