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Closed loop plumbing

Ok, here is my latest update. Got a lot done this weekend and I also had Friday off. I should have been doing my taxes, but I've gotten a refund every year for as long as I can remember and there's a secret the IRS doesn't advertise: you don't have to file your taxes on time if you're getting a refund. If you read the fine print, all penalties are a percentage of the tax you owe, which will be zero. I'm all for procrastination, so I chose to work on the tank instead!

There's really no rocket science to the closed loop plumbing. I followed the design outlined above (thanks Mike). There are plenty of other threads around here talking about plumbing so I'll spare you the details and just give a brief overview and show some pictures.

- All plumbing is 1.5" schedule 40 PVC
- The inlet drains are attached to 1.5" bulkheads
- The outlet jets are attached to 3/4" bulkheads to give a little backpressure
- Flow will vary at each line via an Oceans Motions 4-way MBV
- The closed-loop pump is a Sequence Hammerhead.

Most of my plumbing joints are glued. Put some purple PVC pipe primer on (say that 5 times fast), let it dry, then the glue and just slide the pipes together. I'm really not planning on tinkering with the closed loop plumbing once it's done, and on top of that it will be inaccessible behind the tank. I figured glue is probably the way to go for these joints. I did put a union on each line as you can see, so if I ever do need to take something apart it can be done.

This all looks easy, but it's actually quite time consuming and takes some careful measuring to make sure all the joints line up. My table saw came in extra handy here. That plastic cutting blade I mentioned earlier works great for shaving off 1/4" at a time off these pipes until the length is just right.

View attachment 12025View attachment 12026View attachment 12027View attachment 12028View attachment 12029
 
Eventually the pump is going to go under the floor in the crawlspace. However, I thought it best to set everything up in the garage for the leak test. This turned out to be a good idea. So, the pump is just sitting in the cabinet for the time being. You can see there are unions on the pipes here as well. When the time comes to put the pump under the house, I can just disconnect everything, put a 90-degree elbow on each of these and shoot it straight under the floor.

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Loc-line

Check out all my loc-line for the closed-loop outlets. This is all 3/4", the biggest size they have. Actually it's kind of expensive as well. All the stuff you see sitting here probably cost me about $100 at Marine Depot.

They also sell $20 pliers designed to easily take this stuff apart and put it together, but I was cheap and did it by hand. The consequence of this was sore wrists for a day. This stuff is kind of a pain to work with.

Anyway, I chose to split each outlet into two with a Y-adapter and about 3" of loc-line on each branch. The Oceans Motions 4-way MBV that I bought is version 2 if I remember correctly. So two lines are active at a time. There are two outlets on each line and each outlet is split into two with the loc-line, so there will always be eight jets firing at any time while the CL pump is on (16 total in the tank). It's probably easier to look at the plumbing picture above than to explain it, you'll see what I mean.

I always have the option of pulling some of this off and maybe using a single outlet at each bulkhead, which would give stronger flow, but less customization.

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Leak test!

After leveling up the tank (my garage floor is not quite level), it's time for the leak test! I've been looking forward to putting water in this tank for months.

Here are a few pictures of the filling process.

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Well, anyone who is afraid of getting a little wet shouldn't be in the reef tank hobby. I did have a minor disaster in that one of the unions under the cabinet wasn't sealed quite right and water went all over the place. Here are my towels drying in the sun -- sorry, I wasn't in the mood to snap pictures with water dribbling all over.

View attachment 12040
 
oh how can i sympathize with you on plumbing! :) and my tank is not even that complicated but it was my first plumbing experience so i measured and re-measured and measured once again before i cut anything. i still have to finish plumbing my return system but that should be easier i hope.

where are your ball valves going to be? i had to add 4 ball valves on my closed loop to the outlet jets. i did this in case i wanted to change the drum in the OM 4-way I could easily. So I have ball valve on the intake side of the OM-4 as well as all 4 outlets. Also I did that in case I had to do maintenance on it. It was something I did not think of when I first set it up.

Matt
 
Closed-loop test

I filled the tank to slightly below the overflow teeth (the overflow is not yet plumbed) and turned on the MBV and pump. Neat! I was looking forward to this moment. The pictures don't really do a good job of capturing the flow, but I can feel a good amount when I stick my fingers in front of the outlets. You can kind of see the surface turbulence that's created by aiming one of the outlets upwards.

Now I didn't attempt any soundproofing, but I can see it was a wise decision to decide to locate this pump under the house. It does make a nice loud humming sound. The MBV on the other hand is completely silent even when I stick my ear up to it.

I had a union joint that started dripping when the pipes were under pressure, but that was just because I hadn't tightened it all the way. There were also a few dribbles coming from the MBV, but I think this is because I didn't screw the fittings in all the way. Anyway, these joints will be redone when I move the pump, so I'm not going to worry about them now. There's also a very small drip from one of the bulkheads. I may have to replace the seal.

After running the pump overnight, I'm happy with the results. I think a closed-loop was a good decision. If nothing else, it's just COOL. :cool:

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Lighting

While the closed-loop was cranking away, I decided to finish up the canopy. There are a few pictures of it above and I've attached some more of the finished product. Well, almost finished. I haven't installed the moonlights yet, but I may do this after the hood is on the tank (and maybe even after I have some livestock) so I can figure out the best way to aim them.

I started with the VHOs. I bought an Icecap 660 ballast that is dimmable to create a dusk/dawn effect. The endcaps are screwed into the hood where I built a standoff to bring the bulbs down to the level of the MH refelectors. I attached a ground plane strip to the bulbs. This is basically foil-backed tape. The instructions that came with the Solar 1000 dimmer say this gives you better dimming performance. Do I believe it? I don't know, time will tell. But it's a lot easier to put this stuff on now than it would be later. Basically the foil on the bulbs attaches to your ground wire with some alligator clips.

View attachment 12048

I wired everything up, plugged it in, and POP! There goes the circuit breaker and a flash of blue light. Found another outlet and it worked fine.

The bulbs are each 110W super actinics for supplementation (I plan to run 10K MH bulbs for the main lighting). They aren't kidding when they say these bulbs are BLUE. Verrrry blue and very bright. I noticed an interesting effect when looking at them. My vision appeared to be blurry and distorted and it seemed like little specs of dust or something were darting around in front of the lights. I asked Tiffany to come take a look and she informed me that what I was seeing are tiny microscopic bugs moving around on my eyeballs. The blue lights really bring them out. Weird, huh?! I've never noticed this before and I sat there watching these little critters for awhile. Fascinating.

View attachment 12045View attachment 12046

Anyway, I decided to hook up the MH ballasts as well and make sure everything is working. I have four 250W XM 10,000K bulbs and they fired up without problems. Interesting how it takes a few minutes to reach full intensity. I've never had MH lighting before and man is it bright. My garage looked like an alien spacecraft was about to land. I could imagine my electric meter spinning as fast as it could.

View attachment 12047

Well, that's it for now. Not bad for a weekend's work. I'm trying to talk my brother into coming over to reinforce the floor next weekend, at which point the tank is moving in the house! Exciting stuff. I'm not looking forward to the under-house plumbing, but it will be worth it in the end. Stay tuned.
 
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mattseattle said:
where are your ball valves going to be? i had to add 4 ball valves on my closed loop to the outlet jets. i did this in case i wanted to change the drum in the OM 4-way I could easily. So I have ball valve on the intake side of the OM-4 as well as all 4 outlets. Also I did that in case I had to do maintenance on it. It was something I did not think of when I first set it up.
Matt
Click to expand...

Since I'm moving the pump under the house anyway, I didn't bother to put any ball valves on for the test. I'll probably put them on just under the floor where the pipes come up into the cabinet.
 
good point. i spent most of yesterday running to get weld on and at lowes buying plumbing parts. :)

so what stand pipes are you going to use in your over flow boxes? are you going to keep all your overflows seperate or tie them all together into one drain? is there just one stand pipe in each overflow box?
 
Is there anyway you can rotate your Mh reflectors & lamps, you would get more light into the tank that way?
 
mattseattle said:
good point. i spent most of yesterday running to get weld on and at lowes buying plumbing parts. :)

so what stand pipes are you going to use in your over flow boxes? are you going to keep all your overflows seperate or tie them all together into one drain? is there just one stand pipe in each overflow box?
Click to expand...

Right now there's nothing in the overflows. I plan to have a 1" return and a 1.5" drain (Durso standpipe) in each. Most likely they'll have a flex-PVC attachment and each drain into the sump under the house individually. So they will be separate.
 
Scooterman said:
Is there anyway you can rotate your Mh reflectors & lamps, you would get more light into the tank that way?
Click to expand...

Actually the MH reflectors are slightly angled towards the back. It's hard to see this in the picture. I think they could probably be rotated more, but I'll try it out first and see how it looks.
 
Scooterman - you mean the metal halide bulbs should be going from the front of the canopy to the back and not from end to end?
 
Yes he needs to rotate them 90 degrees or front to back.
I'd raise the VHO's & split them, two in the back & two in the front, you'll see a difference.
 
ok now i know what you meant in the other thread. i see everyone mounting them the way he did in that photo. mine on my 55 gallon are mounted that way. for the 120 guess i'll rotate them....
 
YEP! Off to the side like that you'll waste even more light, all is needed it to raise the VHO's right above the reflectors.
 
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