Closed loop in a drilled tank? Need help.

[zuzecawi]

Okay, so I did it, I got mad at all the little tanks (the 55, the 58, the 3 running on one system, and I bought a used 135 gal acrylic and a 75 gal acrylic long and I'm building one big system with the 135 on top and the 75 sumped as a combo sump/mud mangrove/and sand/macro refugium. The 135 came predrilled in a real interesting way, it was a freshy tank with a strange set up. There are three 1 inch holes in the dead center 18" apart from each... I thought these would make a nice closed loop system for pvc running through my rock. Now, how would I actually make this idea reality? Any websites other than the melevsreef one about the non drilled tank? Anybody do this on their drilled tank? Remember guys, I've got plenty of time, patience, and tools, so I don't care if it gets a little elaborate. I would like to keep it under Bush's deficit in cost though.
Also, any reason not to buy ballasts for halides from a hydroponics shop instead of aquarium supply? They've got 400w ballasts for $132.00 local here, and I been thinking 2 400w's and 2 HO's for lighting. Any suggested combos? The stand and canopy will be made by yours truly and my wonderfully handy sweetie, so if anybody knows sites with ideas/plans, we'd appreciate. Thanks all!

[fishfreek]

So the holes are below the water line? If so this wont be to hard at all. One hole can be the intake to the closed loop and the other hole can be the return for the closed loop. Get the size of the holes and find a bulkhead that will fit. Put these bulkheads in place and use a strainer on the inlet or you could plumb some kind of PVC with holes drilled in it to act like a long strainer on the inlet. Then plumb the bulkhead down to the external pump. This can be any sized pump you want since you dont have to worry about an overflow. Your going to pull water out of the inlet and push it back into the tank thru the return. If the flow is to great or you dont have enough holes in your strainer you will get pump cavitation and this will cause microbubbles. To solve the issue just make it so water can flow into the pump easier, ie add more holes.

You can plumb your return so it acts like a spray bar across the back of the tank or have it plumbed so you have multiple returns that are aimed at areas of expected low flow.

[zuzecawi]

Okay... 3.5" from the back on the floor/bottom are three holes that are spaced somewhat like: o-------o--O and they are 1" and the last is 1.25". Then in the center of the floor/bottom, there's three more 1" holes spaced 18" apart like.......o...........o.........o........

So does that give a better idea? I'd like to run more than one inlet, I was thinking about having a rail of pvc like l______l______l only flipped over with holes drilled in it for water flow inside the rockscaping (I have a LOT of rock, over 180lbs and planning to add another 50lbs min) that ran off the three central holes, and taking the big hole at the back and running a pvc pipe on that for a durso standpipe style overflow minus the overflow box, with the two holes beside it plumbed with pvc and that funny triangular moving pipe stuff (loc-something, saw it on another related post here) for surface agitation. My only concern is that one drain/standpipe wouldn't be enough for the amount of water I need to keep circulating through here. Should I drill another big O next to the o-------o--O so it's like O--o-------o--O? Then I could have two standpipe/returns. I was thinking continuous flow on the l______l______l since it's in the rockwork, but I could be convinced otherwise. I also thought that little scwd deal as pretty cool idea for maybe the center post of the rail with the outer parts going back down to the sump? Sump wise, my main filtration is biological and one monster skimmer, I was going to piece the sump into a intake side where my monster skimmer runs, through a couple bubble baffles, then flow into two fuges (one mangrove/mud and one sand/macro) and from there flow through another baffle to the return pump side. I was planning on two dolphin amp master pumps, one for the skimmer (skimmer's rated Ungodly) and the other for the return(s). Could I run one external pump for return, with the return y'ing to the two surface agitation pipes and the scwd run center rail? Or should I run it like, instead of a center rail, 3 pipes with scwds in the center and t pipes drilled but capped? As in:___l___ ___l___ ___l___ or is all this too elaborate and I'm just making things harder than they need to be? I've really learned the importance of random waterflow over the years, so I dont mind a fortune in scwd's if it's necessary.

[zuzecawi]

Okay this is a shameless bump and a pic of the mystery brand skimmer.

[Brenden]

Skimmer looks like something precision marine would manufacture but I am not sure.