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You're doing fine. You are going to have to do some trial and error on the aquascaping and also the water flow. That is the beauty of loc-line. You can redirect flow where you want it without re-plumbing your tank. On the eggcrate and aquascape...my 2 cents is that you should never rest a rock on the sides or back of the tank. You will regret it when you go to clean. I would suggest either stacking carefully in the middle or using a PVC structure as a support and zip-tie rock to it to form a tower in the mid to back portion of your tank. It may look a little un-natural at first, but you will get better flow and all sides of the tank will be cleanable. Also, when your corals start to grow in you will have more growout room and the tank will be visually pleasing from all sides.
 
View attachment 8989thanks, as for triming back the eggcrate, i know everone has told me what to do, iam just not thinking... should ijust cut it back all the way around so much, or just the three sides in front so i can get under the eggcrate if need be, my brain just isnt working :) this is where a pic or drawing would be great,,,, View attachment 8988 View attachment 8990
 
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Bill your plumbing sounds fine, just test it first to make sure you are getting flow where you need it. As for putting rock against the glass people do it and I have seen some that look good and it is more often seen in smaller size tanks. Its kind of up to you as long as you can keep good flow around everything.

Also I don't know if this has been mentioned but going BB you well need to have a really good skimmer as you don't have a sand bed to break stuff down anymore, this is the HEART of a berlin system.
 
Here's a crude drawing of what I would try first. The trimming of the eggcrate is dependent on where the rock is. You want as little of the eggcrate to show as possible and still be efective.
 
Bill I just noticed you have the outlet on one side it would work better in the back center blowing out forward so everything blows forward.
 
i have this cl setup using a scwd current device, iam using a dolphin 800 pump, so it alternates between the left top and the right bottom...pulling water from the back tube
 
If you look at yout last drewing you can see where the center of the back is not going to get any flow, it well be a detritus area, if you can using the pump and scwd you have and redo the plumbing to put the lower one in the back center next to the intake blowing forward.
 
Personally, with 800 gph I would do one of 2 things:

1) put all of it pointing down the back center of the tank and add a couple of power heads to the back pointing at the 2 front panels to bounce around some flow.

2) split the line to have one leg going down the back center (continuous flow) and the other leg split to the left and right sides pushing water to the front glass like in my drawing and use the SCWD to alternate sides.

I really don't like the setup you have drawn up. I think John's comments are spot on. You will have detritus building up in the back center...the most inconvienient place to get it out of the tank.
 
thanks, super great advice, i agree the set up i had, is not going to do whats needed to help me keep it clean, iam learning :) at least... i like the first one,iam not sure with all the plumbing and lift, that the 800 would do the job, by using it to do all three, moving water down the back and alternating to the front, i was thinking about. adding a pump for the back to push the water stright down the back, and use the 800 to alternate l to r pointing to the front two panles, View attachment 8996 or i can dump the scwd and use the pump to do all three with no alternating to the front glass, just stright down the back, and two to the front...
 
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if i decide to use a second pump, not sure what size will do the job, can i tie into the 1'' return iam using for the 800, or do i nee to run a seperate return? it might be more cost effective to use the 800 to do the water down the back alone, and just get two power heads to bounce off the front two glass panles.. i have a few 550 power heads.... as for directing water flow down the back, do i need a cone nozzle, or open pipe, or something elese
 
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Bill - Reed says running a pipe straight down the back through the eggcrate with nothing on the end if I am understanding him right well keep the bottom clean, I have never tried that, but I don't see how it well flare the flow out to get the whole bottom unless it is a bouncing effect off of the bottom that spreads the flow out. You can try it, that is why you need to fill it with tap water first and a tiny bit of fine sand and test the flow. I would do more like I said back in post 38 I belleive or one of them "Y"s that have a inlet that is 90 deg. to the "Y" outlet if you know what I mean, I think they use them on pvc furniture on the corners. They look like your drawings of you outlets. You could run 2 spray bars forward toward the front of the reef, cap the ends and drill holes. The flow would blow toward the center, meet and flow forward if you follow me. I would have the outlet pipe dead in the back center and the intake to the side of that.

As for the other if you can run your scwd on a seperate pump for flow and you have the bucks for another pump, go for it, it well look better and be less pain then pwrhds, but if not pwrhds well do just fine.
The main thing is to check the effectiveness of the setup before you put saltwater in the tank which ever way you go.
 
If you have the power heads lying around I would do this:

use the dolphin 800 to pump water straight down the back of the aquarium. This will push everything to the front and up to keep it in suspension for food for corals/fish and move it to your skimmer for export. Use your PHs for flow around the tank (you'll need to experiment to find the right place for best flow, but start with banking them off the front/side panels). By using the PHs you can ajust where they are very easily and see what works best. When you see what works best you can swap out the PHs for a new closed loop (if you want) and you'll know where to plumb it for best results.

Eventually you could just go to a bigger pump and run the down flow and tank flow with one pump, but you run the risk of loosing all of your flow with one pump failure.

You're getting closer and I think you'll like the results when you get it all plumbed.
 
will the 800 split three ways do the job. also if i ran down the back and to the front l and r do i use three of my cone nozzles, one stright down, and the the other two on line-loc s
 
You'll have to experiment. More importantly your flow requirements will depend on your inhabitants. I have 3000 gph in a 75 gallon and I need more flow because I want to keep tabling acropora species. If you are keeping LPS or soft corals you won't need near that volume.
 
well right now i have a few shrooms, what about the nozzles. the one i have are 1/2 tapers down to 1/4, if i use the 800 to do all three, do i need to reduce the 3/4 size iam using any where, like for the back flow,or sides. if i do the other way with phs just point them where i need them for best flow, no spreaders or anything....
 
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I would just run the spray bar or whatever off of the 800 and use another system for the random flow above. I don't believe you can have to mush under the reef and if you just run a pipe straight down under it with no spray bar or direction set up you well need more pressure. That way if one system goes out you still have flow in the tank and I don,t think a 800 well be enough to do all three.
 
ok so i will go with two systems, what size pump do you think will do the job for the down flow, also do i need to put the 1/2 to 1/4 cone nozzle on my 3/4 down pipe, and should i use the same cone nozzles for the side flow,toward the front glass.. also does this need to be a seperte cl system, or will i be able to use the return water pipe for both systems, with water shut off valves, for service... thanks to all again for being patient will all the questions.... Bill
 
Yeah I would think with no bigger then the pumps are you could share. If you are talking about nozzles by Loc-LIne I would not run them on the down line, You need a much volume flowing out across the bottom as you can get using this system. I still would check to see that the whole area under the eggcrate is going to have flow doing this, I am not convinced yet. As for the upper ones You can try it with the nozzles, without, you could use the flared Loc-Line nozzles, you can change that anytime, right now I would concentrate on the lower one, and check it out afterwards first.
 
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