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Travis said:
Alberto, please keep us updated on how you end up addressing the noise of the water flowing down the overflow pipes. I have the same problem with my clam tank in my living room. It has a durso, which eliminates gurgling but I still have the trickling water sound.
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I have found if you install a gate valve on the line from the overflow and cut it back to match the flow rate, the line will fill up and will be silent on the upstream side of the valve. The downhill stream will still produce noise. So, either put the valve at the sump, or below the floor level of the tank.

Keep in mind that you should incorporate a secondary means for the water to get out of the main tank if the valve should become partially or completely blocked for some reason. Or insure NOTHING large enough to get caught in the valve can get in the pipe.

This is how I have my two tanks setup.
 
AcroSteve, the gate valve is a good idea. However, I can't stress enough how important it is to have a BACK UP in case it gets restricted for some reason. I lost a fully stocked 75g sps tank to a plugged overflow drain that had a gate valve on it. If it wasn't for the gate valve, I would still have the tank and corals. If I had put a back-up in place, I would also still have that tank and the corals. Unless Alberto or someone else comes up with a better solution to the overflow drain noise I think I will go ahead and put a gate valve on mine. However, before I do that I will add a second drain (good thing it's an acrylic tank) with a standpipe higher than the original drain. That way if the main drain get restricted the back up drain can handle the flow.
 
Cesar, Thank you, and nope, not from Canada, but I have visited there many times. :)

Travis, In addition to the backup overflow, I have a float switch in the overflow that is hooked to a relay that will kill the power to my return and CL pumps until the water level in the overflow drops. I am using a 24vdc power supply for the float switch. I suppose this switch could be mounted in the main tank also. It would acomplish the same thing. I kill the CL pump also because the water will slosh and splash out of the tank if the water level is at the upper limit. This would not be the case in all CL applications.

Sorry to hear about your past trouble.
 
Well, there is hardly anything different now. I did add some things thought. I added a few corals and a few frags today. Also, a male aquamipinis and 12 females. As far as equipment, I added a 50 micron filter sock to catch debri coming into the sump. The tank has been running hot though with the temp in the 80's daily since I am yet to plumb in the chiller. I will that over the weekend.

If my sebae clown is not harrassing the new anthias, I will snap somce shots tomorrow.
 
I have found if you install a gate valve on the line from the overflow and cut it back to match the flow rate, the line will fill up and will be silent on the upstream side of the valve. The downhill stream will still produce noise. So, either put the valve at the sump, or below the floor level of the tank.
Click to expand...

I did that with a ball valve and it was amazingly silent which was a good thing since the tank is near the bedroom, unfortunately a snail took a ride down the overflow and since I didn't have secondary means for the water to get out of the main tank and you can guess what happened :(
 
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cheeks69 said:
I did that with a ball valve and it was amazingly silent which was a good thing since the tank is near the bedroom, unfortunately a snail took a ride down the overflow and since I didn't have secondary means for the water to get out of the main tank and you can guess what happened :(
Click to expand...


That is exactly what I am afraid of. I put 300 snails in the tank and within 4 days half of them were in the sump. :p
 
dgasmd said:
That is exactly what I am afraid of. I put 300 snails in the tank and within 4 days half of them were in the sump. :p
Click to expand...

I put a screen over the overflow but I ain't taking no more chances, the cleanup wasn't fun and I was fortunate to arrive just as it happened otherwise it could've been more serious.
 
I have not installed the chiller or the new PO4 remover and carbon reactors yet due to frustrating lack of some resources. I was going to do it today, but then found I needed to order some things online first, which I will do tomorrow. Could not install the reactors because I need to also relocate my skimmer first, which requires me to drain my sump and relocate some valves and such. Have not started the Ca reactor yet because I need to first plumb the pump that will feed it (same as for the chiller). I will also be redoing 70% of the plumbing as I will take out the actuated ball valves and replace them for another 2 sequence pumps instead. I have not been happy with the flow at all. I will also replace the return pump, which is currently one of the blueline 100 pumps (same as iwaki 100), to be replaced by a sequence as well. I will also take out the eductors when I do that. The eductors do work very well when it comes to flow, but having them as the returns limits my water volume turn over through the sump. That makes the cooling and skimming very inefficient as I don't ahve enough water going through the sump.

It is a lot of changes as you can see. In an ideal wolrd, I would wake up next weekend and do it all, if not most of it, but I only wished I had that kind of time. Also, doing this with a full tank is a completely different story. In all likelyhood, I will redo the close loop first, then the return, then relocate the skimmer, put the reactors in line, and finally put the chiller up.
 
Alberto,
I had to redo my closed loop plumbing as well. I was a bit annoyed at having to do that again, but it actually took alot less time than I expected, becuase I had already done it once before, and knew what I wanted to change.

Keep your chin up, it'll get done before you know it.

Nick
 
Small update

Well, the pumps to redo the close loops have been ordered and should be here this week. The valves have arrived. The necessary plumbing minus the obligatory 12 trips to Lowes are also here. Looking for a good day to swap it all out in the next few weeks.

Anyone looking to buy two 1.5" diameter Hayward motorized valves already wired to a timer??? :oops: :mad: :oops:

I added 12 female lyretail anthias and a male and after less than 4 days only 2 females and the male remain. Only 2 bodies came out as the rest were under the rocks. Because of the 10 decaying bodies, I now have algae in lots of places. Had nothing before it. On a positive side, if you can even call it that, the skimmer has started to make a significant amount of skimmate :badgrin: :badgrin: :eek: :lol: :lol:

The cabinetry guy should be here this week to start the cabinetry work. I am really looking forward to this part as I am sure is my wife. Still going back and forth wondering if I should add some VHO to the mix. So far the radiums are coloring the brown stick farm.

I was able to find a pool sotrage container to house the chiller. I changed my mind about 7 times as to where I was going to put it and finally came back to the original plan of right outside of the garage. I have to relocate some valves in the sump and move the chiller before I run the pipes to the outside. Given that it has been pretty cool here lately, I have not had a lot of motivation to get this done. Also, I needed some new valves to get it done. The carbon and PO4 removing media should go in after the chiller gets done and the skimmer is relocated as well. In reality, I will redo the close loops first, get the valves in the sump redone, plumb the chiller in, and then do the rest of the reactors.

Finding time to get all this done is a challenge, but it has to be done in the next month because I am hosting one of my local club's meetings at my place and I want to ahve it all done by then.

Added a couple of fish too. Found a very healthy and colorfull looking achilles tang and a desjardini tang. Also added the biggest mandarin goby I have seen to date. It is the seize of a ford focus!!!! Given the tank is so big and there is so much rock, food source should not be an issue. I hope to find him a female in about 9 months for him to "get jigi with it".

More to come as I get more accomplished.
 
Alberto you might want to check out the oceans motions 8 way or the 4 way. I used the four way on my 240 gal closed loop the web is oceansmotions.com check them out I think you will like it better than the mbv's.
 
Mike, sorry, Mr. Mojo:

The reason I am taking them out is because I am not getting enough flow. When they are directing the flow in one direction, only about half of that section is getting the real water movement and the rest gets very little. I set it up to where the water is coming all across from each other as it would with 4 pumps instead of 2 and it worked much nicer.

I originally went with the MBV because I thought it would save me the cost in electricity of 2 other pumps, but the results are not what I had hoped for. The other thing is that when they change they make a noise in the garage. If you stand inside the garage, you barely notice them. However, if you are inside the house on the tank side, the stopping and going of that much water through the pipes make it sound as if something blew up inside the garage. It scared the hell out of me and my wife when it happened the first time until we figured out what it was.

Again, anyone want to buy a barely use pair of 1.5" Hayward MBV all wired to a very nice timer????
 
That is strange. I have a 5000gph on mine with only the slight noise of the valve switching over. I wonder if it has to do with the distance of the pumps??

Thats is to bad. Let me know if the valves dont sell for ya I get asked for them all the time.


take care bro


Mike
 
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