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41vivkies_plumbing.jpg
A drawing idea for a self cleaning plenum


41PLENUM.jpg


A final drawing for the plenum

41PLENUMFINAL.jpg


An over the top closed loop for a glass tank

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A return plumbing plan

41Shannons_tank.jpg


Another plumbing plan
 
One of Mojo's old posts on flow placement I found useful over the years. This thread is a must read. Probably one of the greatest builds I've ever seen. Mojo actually knows his stuff! If you look good, you can see his refection in one of the pictures:p

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/f102/plumbing-water-flow-workshop-8922/

Mojoreef said:
...From my experience I find we don't have to put alot on the size of overflow as we want to keep it in the tank for the most part, so normal overflows will be fine. We start the overall plan by taking care surface water. This can be done easily by using the return water from the sump. So just come over the top with at least two returns, they can go directly into the tank pointing across the surface about two inches deep or by using seaswirls if desired. Keep it simple here and use the sides of the tank to bonce flow off of with your ultimate destination being the overflow
for normal outputs
topflow.jpg

topflow2.jpg


For the main part of the flow you can use either a closed loop system or powerheads to create the overall flow for the mid section and lower section of the tank. The idea here is to try to interlace the flow sources so that they help each other accomplish the overall plan.
So here is an end view of a tank, it shows some good flow coming from the back of the tank and going from a point just above the sand bed and pointing slightly higher towards the front. Then Their is a second level of flow that takes the flow from that point and pushes it higher to the upper flow which will take it out of the tank.
endflow.jpg

Remember its not so much as "how much flow you have" as it is "how well placed it is". Ok now for a top down flow. What we are looking for is an over all coverage and the ability to keep as much of the food/waste/detritus in the water column. So having more outlets with less flow per is going to make that easier to accomplish then to have just a few outlets with a ton of flow.
So in this pic it gives you a general concept looking from the top down as what kind of coverage we are looking for
overallflow.jpg


Ok so that is a basic idea of what we are trying to do with flow in the tank, so the next thing would be how to accomplish that using pumps, pvc and other neat toys....

Mike
 
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another plumbing plan

41vivkies_plumbing.jpg


inner workings for the above center column closed loop

kris2.jpg


Flow direction plan for a tank

overallflow.jpg


A closed loop using an ocean motions

ruthom_plumb.jpg



Motorized ball valve closed loop on a glass tank, over the top

snowbackplum.jpg


And then a old urchin for the ewwwwsss and ahhhhhs lol

urchin2.JPG
 
COuld be Krish man I have like a hundred of these drawing I have done for folks over the years.

Mojo
 
COuld be Krish man I have like a hundred of these drawing I have done for folks over the years.

Mojo

Cool! I lost a whole hardrive of photos with diagrams I made up for people as well as step by step photos on how to start up a prefilter (priming them etc) which I don't have anymore :doubt:. I do however remember some of the members in particular I helped so if the photos haven't expired I'll post them. :)
 
HOW TO PRIME A PRE-FILTER BOX

(Taken from an old post of mine where I helped a mmember prime his pre-filter).

You'll hang the prefilter over the tank.

Push a piece of airline tubing (like what you use for air pumps/airstones) through the "U" shaped tube up to the top like in the pic below.

Allow the water to enter into the prefilter from the tank and cover the end of the "U" shaped tube atleast half way up.

On the other side of the prefilter (which sits on the back of the tank) do the same whereas atleast the bottom of the "U" shaped tube is covered with water as it will help it to keep its siphon.

Suck long and hard on the airline tubing while pulling it out of the "U" shaped tubing slowly allowing all of the air to be pulled out of the "U" shaped tube and water to enter the back portion of the prefilter.

Once this is done, your "U" shaped tube should be filled with water and you are set. It will never lose siphon again until you completely pull the "U" shaped tube out to clean.

*When you begin to fill the back portion of the prefilter, water will drain in the sump. Don't worry. Just make sure that the "U" shaped tube is submersed when priming the prefilter

 
How about another sketch!!


DIY TO 10 GAL NANO​

Idea was to make a 10 gal into an all-in one tank able to hide pumps, skimmer and phosban reactor.


Tank with overflow wall, backwall and pvc board bottom cut ready to be glued it.




Once pvc board, overflow and backwall was siliconed into place, I taped off the tank and painted the "sump" chamber black so you couldn't see any of the stuff behind it.





All dried and sitting. As you can see, unlike other all-in-ones that have a back compartment, I made this one differently to have it at the side.







Water test





That side compartment would hold (2) MJ1200's for flow, 1 MJ900 for the skimmer and 1 MJ400 for the phosban reactor. All cramped inside there.


Here is the resting place on what would have be the temporary stand until I built one where I tested the halides. Unfortunately, I had a buddy that begged me to get this setup from me and seeing the rock was taking so long to come, I sold it to him and would do something totally different. Still waiting LLOL!




 
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Thought I'd fire up this thread up with how to vent/cool a canopy. Did this when I added halides to my 75 gal.


Drilled 5 holes in canopy






Installed suction fans for top of canopy






Made mounting legs out of aluminum for fans to suck in cool air from the sides






Blurry, but stainless steel vents to cover holes






Fans in canopy (3 suction and two blowing in cool air marked by red arrows)







Canopy closed







And let there be light!!!


 
One more...How to add a chiller to your existing stand without having to build a new stand.


Chiller sitting on floor. Wife said it was not so cool!





Built chiller box to fit onto existing stand





Fits like a glove. Hardly can tell it was added afterwards (the plant was not my idea :rolleyes: )





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