1st Reef Tank help needed

Reef Aquarium & Tank Building Forum

Help Support Reef Aquarium & Tank Building Forum:

Ok all......I have made a a drawing of what my plumbing plans are. The Manifold will use 1 - 1.5" up to the top, 1" around perimeter and the outlets will reduce down to 3/4" using Lok line. The pumps that I have listed are not set in stone as of yet, but they do come close to the turnover rates which is 10x tank out of sump and 20x tank out of manifold. Any ideas, suggestions and or critiques are welcome.
 
Ok, Looking at your drawing you may have a problem with the closed loop return. The locklines are going to feed water very strongly to the ones closest to the pump and the other side of the tank is not going to get much. You might try P.Messaging Mojo reef. He is the tank flow master. He always seems to want to help. Really a very smart guy. Fun to talk to. Steve
 
Holy cow Steve you keep talking about me like that and I am going to have to marry you, LOL.

Jeff, Steve is correct your going to loose flow about half way around that manifold. From a perssonal stand point I really dont like the plumbin dropping into the front of the tank either, iits just to ugly. If it were me I would go with a setup like Steves or possibl slit into to smaller manfolds and drop them down about half way into the back of the tank for some medium level flow.


Mike
 
mojoreef said:
Holy cow Steve you keep talking about me like that and I am going to have to marry you, LOL.

Jeff, Steve is correct your going to loose flow about half way around that manifold. From a perssonal stand point I really dont like the plumbin dropping into the front of the tank either, iits just to ugly. If it were me I would go with a setup like Steves or possibl slit into to smaller manfolds and drop them down about half way into the back of the tank for some medium level flow.


Mike
Click to expand...

Thanks Mike! I redid the drawing, Let me know if this is along the same lines as you were thinking.Also, what do you think of the pump choices?

Jeff
 
Yes Sir, thats it. I am thinking if that drawing means haveing line come down into the tank and another lock line on the bottom of it it will work wonderful. Do you know about the self priming trick for the closed loop pump? If not I will show it to you. One thing. I dont use a lot of mag drive pumps so I have little experince with them. I know they are not recommended by the manufacturer for external saltwater use. I have seen them used that way and having large amounts of salt creep on them. Just something I have noticed. I am sure someone has figured out how to overcome that, hopefully they will post it on here for you. I cant tell you alot more about it because I dont have alot of time with them. Steve
 
wrightme43 said:
Yes Sir, thats it. I am thinking if that drawing means haveing line come down into the tank and another lock line on the bottom of it it will work wonderful. Do you know about the self priming trick for the closed loop pump? If not I will show it to you. One thing. I dont use a lot of mag drive pumps so I have little experince with them. I know they are not recommended by the manufacturer for external saltwater use. I have seen them used that way and having large amounts of salt creep on them. Just something I have noticed. I am sure someone has figured out how to overcome that, hopefully they will post it on here for you. I cant tell you alot more about it because I dont have alot of time with them. Steve
Click to expand...

Steve, Would you have the bottom bar come off the closed loop or off the return? Yeah I would like to hear about the priming trick as well as about the mag pumps from others? I picked the mag pumps because they were cheaper and gave me the flow I was looking for..Jeff
 
The absolute best idea you have come up with so far. Seaswirls are on the list of upgrades for my tank as well. That would be perfect. On the priming device. You just take a pvc T and turn it on its side. It sits on the edge of the tank. The one outlet facing into the tank,and plumbed down to the spraybar, the straight thru facing up and down. You run the down to the pump and the up you put a piece of tube on it and a threaded cap. You take of the cap off, pour it full of water and put the cap back on. Then if you ever lose siphon to the pump just fill it again. That way there is no air in the line when the closed loop pump starts. I will try to find the thread that shows pictures. Its the same as rena's xp series of cannister filters.
 
ok the pictures are in a thread called (closed loop help) started by (the claw) the pictures are under melevsreef. Its a link in the thread. You can see what he did and change it to suit your tank. Sorry I cant just link it, but I am to dumb to figure out how it works and people have spent a lot of time showing me I just cant seem to catch on. LOL If you search for threads started by the claw you will find it. or if you search for closed loop its on page 4. HTH steve
 
hey dolphin. i have the exact same set up as you. i run a little giant 875gph external from the sump. the only problem with this is that the size of the sump and the external pump together go end to end within the stand. you have to do a little creative plumbing. I get good cross currents with the standard 3/4" returns. there is some dead spots within the tank usually to the sides of the overflows. i dont mind that too much because most of the detritus settles there and can be siphoned out. i have 2 maxi jet 1200 p/h that also help out. i do like the idea of adding seaswirls and a closed loop. all in all the tank dimensions are pretty nice. i know even on a ladder i am up to my armpits, i can barely reach the bottom so i try and stay out of it as much as possible. i was also curious of the flow rates and emailed oceanic. they told me all of there tanks were 7-10 so the overflows would handle from 980 to 1400 gph. i was under the impression that was total and not per return. i also run my skimmer off the same pump which takes some of the flow away. hopefully soon down the road i will get a dedicated pump just for that. anyway hope this helps. i think it was steve that helped me with this one also, thanks steve
 
Hey Sryder, Great to finally get to talk to someone who has the same tank! Hopefully I will get this up and running soon, but honestly, I am still in the process of getting the equipment. I am definately going to add the seaswirls for upper flow and have some sort of spray bar on the bottom. I am leaning towards a bar with lok line in use. How many punds of live rock are you using? Yeah I was curious about the return as well, I find it hard to believe that each return would be rated for 7-10
x turnover. How deep of a sand bed do you have? I am thinking of going 3-4 inches and as far as lighting goes, I am going to go with 2-250 MH and atinics (probably 4).

Jeff
 
hey jeff, i dont use a sand bottom. i have a bare bottom. i here alot of pros and cons about the dsb. i do like the look though. i like the spray bar idea for the back of the tank inbetwwen the overflows. some detritus builds up there and its hard to reach. i had started my tank about a month and a half ago with 35 lbs of live rock and around 70 lbs of rock i had from a past tank of ten years ago. i also started with bio balls in the sump and as i get more rock i am slowly in process of removing them. I was wondering if you know how much wieght the stand can hold? its alot of poundage. my lighting is a coralife pro it has 2 150 watt halides and 2 96 watt actinics. it also has moon lights. I only plan on keeping lps, softies and zoos so i think im ok with the lighting for now. i might upgrade if i start to learn more about sps. on this site theres alot of help so the future is probably some sps twards the top of the tank..let me know how things are going sometime ill get you some pics of mine. i did add acouple of corals today. a frogspawn and a hammer coral. steve
 
Ok, here is what I am going to do, I have just obtained 2-1" sea swirls, so I will be using those as well as a spray bar on the bottom with lok-line. I am thinking about 4 outlets on the spray bar.....think all of that will be enough? and any pump suggestions? The spray bar and sea swirls will run off of one pmp.

Jeff
 
you would have to use a four way with the spray bar return coming out of the center. perhaps with a strong enough pump it may work. before you do it i would talk to mojo about the flow through a setup like that and what size pump he would reccomend. the water is going to flow through the path of least resistence which probably would be the center. i would think you would want most of your flow going to the seaswirls and not the spraybar. you may be able to reduce the size of the spray bar enough to route most of the water flow to the seaswirls but than i do not think you would get the desired effect of the spray bar.
 
Hey Jeff, Keep Me Posted. I Am Curious Down The Road For My Set Up Also. Steve
 
No Problem Steve......Once I get all the plumbing equipment together, I will start to post pictures of the tank and all.....it's going to be a slow process i am sure before I fainally get thisa tank up and running.

Jeff
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

alki
Reef Setup looking for new home
Replies
1
Views
587
Katchupoy
Katchupoy
darklcd
Mh lighting for 130gal tank
Replies
2
Views
2K
spieszak
spieszak
darklcd
Getting back into it with a 130 gal build
Replies
1
Views
2K
spieszak
spieszak
C
Need help with cycling tank
Replies
2
Views
2K
Scooterman
Scooterman
G
Tank swap advice...
Replies
2
Views
2K
Ugla
Ugla

Latest posts

Back
Top