chech this out...(update)

[tinman]

Ok this is my new setup, everything I built except the tanks and pump. Works great been up for 10 hours and the water lines have stayed the same, it also never, I repeat never lost its syphon while I drained the tank with a bucket to move it in the garage. I drained the top tank completely and picked it and the owerflow plumbing all in one unit. took it in the garage filled it back up and the syphon took right back off with out me priming it....YEAH it works...here are some pics

the stand turned out really good keep in mind I havent put the background on the tank yet, most of the plumbing will be hidden.

the tank 20 long

the plumbing

the sump/fuge ignore the crazy silicone job I will clean it up, and I know my baffles are too high will fix later.

whatcha think

 

[tinman]

Oh and a question Can I mix my sand and my CC. I have 50 lbs of sand and 20 pounds off CC. Anybody done this and it worked OK.

 

[RMPD109]

The CC will eventually become the top layer as the finer sand particles settle to the bottom. Great job on the setup- it looks awesome.

 

[tinman]

thanks...It was 2 days worth of work to get right. Now I just need to get my LR rubble. Can I take some base rock and break it up then add a piece of LR to seed it? This is for the inflow chamber in the sump.

 

[seaham358]

What happens when you loose the power? How much water drains down into the sump? Have you tried it to make sure you do not overflow the sump/fuge?
Looks good and yes base rock can be broken and seeded with LR rubble, just takes time to become LR...
thats a lot of PVC...
I would toss the CC and just use sand...

 

[tinman]

What happens when you loose the power? How much water drains down into the sump? Have you tried it to make sure you do not overflow the sump/fuge?
...

yeah I have run a test of power loss and it fills to about 1/2 from the top of the sump. I have a hole drilled right bellow the surface in the return line so a reverse syphon doesn't happen. The cool part is that I turned the pump off let all the water drain, inflow from syphon stopped no water running at all, no flood. I turned the pump back on and the water leveled back out and the overflow started without me doing anything to it....I love this set up. It runs at about 400 gallons per hour. I tested with a 5 gallon bucket and pumped the water out using my return line. It took 45 seconds to drain the bucket. My estimate is 400 gallons perhour. Oh and all that PVC was free. My stepdad had a pile of PVC pipe in his shop I raided. I had to buy about 8.00 worth of fittings. Thanks for the reply

 

[tinman]

So far so good. I have had everything up and running for 48 hours as of last night, so I transferred all my stuff from my ten gallon over to the new tank. Ph levels, salinity and tempature were the same so there was no real issues except finding the snails..lol... No leaks, no floods, and other than evaporation about an 1/8 of a gallon each day so far no water problems at all. My camera is still broke but I got a friend that is going to lone me his for the night so I will post picks later.

 

[PiscesLou]

great design, just what Im looking to do! what is that box looking thing you used for the overflow?

 

[tinman]

great design, just what Im looking to do! what is that box looking thing you used for the overflow?

The overflows are made of a 2 inch PVC pipe coupling with a cap and a 7/8 inch hole as close to the rear corner as I could get it. I just took my dremel tool and cutt slots in the top for the skimmers and stuck the 3/4 pipe through the hole in the bottom, I did have to silicone the bottom pipe. The plans for the overflow are in the first post. I will post more detailed pics later.

 

[EJS4]

Rather than toss the CC it could be used to make LR. Check out garf.org

 

[tinman]

Ok I guess the plans weren't in the first post..Here you go

http://www.guarriello.net/overflow.htm

 

[tinman]

picks after 48 hours