My new 120 upgrade

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this was my train of thought on the dursos and having them staggered. before i got a gravity fed skimmer they both were going to be equal and both drain into the sump. after i got the gravity fed skimmer i went through several phases of design. i thought about combining them into one drain but that defeats the purpose of the dual drains and if it got stopped up (not that that would happen but it's possible) then both drains would be stopped up and the tank would over flow. then i thought well i could just have them equal and have one drain into the sump and the other could be gravity fed. well than that defeats the purpose of having a gravity fed skimmer hooked up to the overflow. then i thought why not just have one of them as the primary overflow and one as secondary or emergency overflow and just stagger them by half an inch or so. that way you would be feeding most of your overflow water directly into the skimmer at the same time allowing for a backup overflow in case the first one got stopped up. i guess i'll see what the noise level is but from what i calculated one 1.5" overflow can handle abot 1250 gallons per hour and I won't be running that through the sump. it sounds ideal on paper so we'll see how it does in practice. :)

and yeah there is some excess glue in spots. :) it's not as pretty in real life! :) it's still pretty though.

finn said:
It has a very nice clean look about it Matt. By that I mean, no excess primer and glue showing. Nice
I am curious, why the staggered durso's. Why not have them equal?
With both working the same, wouldn't the chance of noise be less?
Most durso's work great. All I've seen, plus the one I have were silent, (atleast untill I over powered the rate of flow it is supposed to handle).
 
wwouu dood !!!
it looks like a puzzle :D .
It doesn't look somewhat proffesional i think it looks more than proffecional... great job :) .
 
Matt nice job on the pluming it looks like you’re a spa flex master now. One thing that I have run into while using an OM 4-way is that the barrel gets jammed from lack of cleaning, calcium build up sometimes small chunks of rocks. Any way you need to make sure that you can get a bottom so you can push the barrel out the top when it gets jammed. I made the mistake when I put mine in, and I have to dismantle several unions and threaded joints to be able to press out the barrel, it’s a real pain.
 
I also noticed that you do not have valves on each of the exits on the closed loop. You will end up draining half your tank when the OM 4-way needs servicing.
 
-=dieseldave=- said:
I also noticed that you do not have valves on each of the exits on the closed loop. You will end up draining half your tank when the OM 4-way needs servicing.
Guess he will have to slap some Trojans on the tank inputs.:rolleyes:
Scott
 
-=dieseldave=- said:
I also noticed that you do not have valves on each of the exits on the closed loop. You will end up draining half your tank when the OM 4-way needs servicing.

thanks for the reminder. i have the ball valves but i haven't cut the spa flex yet and installed them. that is on tomorrow agenda. i was too anxious today to see how the return system worked. :)

i just did a leak test and everything looks good. i can honestly say nothing is going to settle on the bottom of the tank. :) i'm not sure my fish will be able to even swim in it as they'll just coast everywhere.

my idea for the 2nd drain being a backup worked in theory but doesn't really work in practice. they both are running right now. :) i'm also getting a few bubbles into the body of the skimmer. i'm not sure if that is normal for a gravity feed skimmer or not. i'll have to research that some more.
 
-=dieseldave=- said:
Matt nice job on the pluming it looks like you’re a spa flex master now. One thing that I have run into while using an OM 4-way is that the barrel gets jammed from lack of cleaning, calcium build up sometimes small chunks of rocks. Any way you need to make sure that you can get a bottom so you can push the barrel out the top when it gets jammed. I made the mistake when I put mine in, and I have to dismantle several unions and threaded joints to be able to press out the barrel, it’s a real pain.

i need to analyze that some more then as i definitely don't want to cause more work than i need to especially once the tank is up and running. so how would you recommend designing it so it's easier to get the drum out?
 
mattseattle said:
so how would you recommend designing it so it's easier to get the drum out?

Matt,
Move that double union ball valve closer to the OM or add another just bellow it. If you feel you have something long enough, and easy enough to get under the drum to push it threw the top, then do nothing. I would try out removing the drum as if were stuck the way it is now and see what you think.
Lots of Luck,
David
 
-=dieseldave=- said:
Matt,
Move that double union ball valve closer to the OM or add another just bellow it. If you feel you have something long enough, and easy enough to get under the drum to push it threw the top, then do nothing. I would try out removing the drum as if were stuck the way it is now and see what you think.
Lots of Luck,
David

Ok, I understand what you are saying now. I'm going to install the ball valves on the exit lines and then give it a go and see how easy i can get the drum out.

Thanks for the heads up on that.
 
krish75 said:
That looks really mean Matt! Glad it is all coming together:)

it also generates some mean water movement. so far nothing has settled on the tank bottom. :) now i need to buy some more filter socks to slow down the water noise in the sump.
 
thanks Gaby..... it held water overnight so I think I did something right. I do have one drip where I didn't put as much teflon tape as I should have.
 
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