Walkthrough of my 180g Setup

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Wow! Great setup - you really thought everything out beautifully! Awesome thread!
 
Thank guys,
hopefully someone out there will be able to use some information to help them or inspire them =)
I appreciate all the nice comments!
 
I was asked in the innovative aquarium forum this question, and decided to bring it over to this thread.
bc_slc said:
hard to tell from your plumbing pic - do you have the external pumps tied into separate loops or do the pumps share a circuit? Looks like they are separate, but my eyes get lost in all that pvc :)

Also, two questions - what is the black box/pump-looking-thing you have on top of the right pump?
Click to expand...

Each of my closed loop pumps is on its own circuit. The plumbing can be confusing if you dont know what your looking at. Each closed loop has two 1.5'' inlets that get reduced down to one 1.5'' pipe. The reason for each closed loop having two, is because i wanted to disperse the suction over a greater area.

The black box/pump thing ontop of my pump is my motorized ball valve. It is what switches my sequence 5800 from flowing left or right into my tank.
hope that helps
 
Gorgeous and well thought out. Nothing like seeing all that planning finally take shape. Great Job B... keep us posted as the tank matures.

-Erik
 
A VERY nice and smart set-up. Good job DrB

Quick question... Does flex PVC have a negative effect on flow compared to rigid plumbing or is it the opposite effect?

Ed Hahn: I buy my flex PVC from Home Depot.
 
I got my flex pvc at paddock pools which is a pool/spa place here, i dont know if they are around the country.
The stuff at homedepot they told me was more for drain piping and not pressure rated. So i got mine at paddock.

When gluing the flex pvc you need special glue to do it, you cant use that redhot blue glue.
The flexpvc probably reduces the flow just as much as rigid piping would if you were to bend it etc. You want to make your bends as straight as possible, just like with flex you want as little change in direction as possible. I think the flow rates are comparable.
 
Quick question about the plumbing..

I see on your tank as well as Mike's and Nikki's that the outputs are in line. Does this create varried flow between the outlets?
 
jlehigh said:
Quick question about the plumbing..

I see on your tank as well as Mike's and Nikki's that the outputs are in line. Does this create varried flow between the outlets?
Click to expand...

I am not sure I understand...

I assume you are talking about my 12 outputs of my dynamic flow closed loop. Correct?

Thse 12 outputs are split into two banks. 6 on each side of my tank. I then have my pump run water through a motorized ball valve. This motorized ball valve switches from one bank of outputs to the other bank of ouputs. So one side of the tank is getting hammered at one time with flow, and then when the motorized ball valve switches the other side of the tank gets hammered with flow.
The more outputs I have the better, because I can move my loc-line around in the tank wherever i want to get flow. So if I get a dead spot iIcan try to move my loc-line to erradicate it. I can also then target certain sps with more flow than others.

Having them in a row doesnt necessarily create varied flow. My motorized ball valve creates the varied flow. Those outputs could be anywhere I wanted in the tank, but there are a couple reasons that they are in a line.
1. It does make plumbing easier, and not only easier but it allows for the best pump performance since it minimizes headloss. If i had them scattered around the tank with lots of elbows and bends it wouldnt be as efficient.
2.and the fact that they are up above my rockwork I didnt have to worry about them when aquascaping. I am able to move the locline however I want to manipulate my flow.

I also will be adding my tunze streams to the tank probably, and this will creat an even more random and varied flow because they will be pulsating while the motorized ball valve switches etc. I just need to find a good spot to put the ugly streams in!
 
Thanks for the response DrB. Let's see if I can restate the question. Say your flow is currently being fed to the left side. The flow will hit the first outlets first then hit the subsequent outlets off the same pipe. Wouldn't the first outlet on each pipe push the most water.

So looking at the sad visual below. The flow in outlet 1 would be different than the flow out of outlet 2 as well as outlet 3.
1 2 3
->---O----O-----O
 
jlehigh said:
Thanks for the response DrB. Let's see if I can restate the question. Say your flow is currently being fed to the left side. The flow will hit the first outlets first then hit the subsequent outlets off the same pipe. Wouldn't the first outlet on each pipe push the most water.

So looking at the sad visual below. The flow in outlet 1 would be different than the flow out of outlet 2 as well as outlet 3.
1 2 3
->---O----O-----O
Click to expand...

DR,

jlehigh is saying that you are running the PVC run from the motorized ball valves in series, and not in parallel, I think. So, if that's true, which is looks to be so in the pictures, then there will be different amounts of flow in the outlets. I don't really see this as a huge problem, but if the outlets each had individual controls, then you could more evenly distribute the flow.
 
mx_tang said:
DR,

jlehigh is saying that you are running the PVC run from the motorized ball valves in series, and not in parallel, I think. So, if that's true, which is looks to be so in the pictures, then there will be different amounts of flow in the outlets. I don't really see this as a huge problem, but if the outlets each had individual controls, then you could more evenly distribute the flow.
Click to expand...

Hey MX,
I think that by using the 1 1/2" manifold with the 3/4" bulkheads that the flow will even out between all outlets as the manifold pressurizes. Especially if the timer allowes the valve to stay on one side long enough before switching to the other side of the tank. Only so much water can come out of each outlet. Point of least resistance? Just a thought.
Scott:)
 
great work!
extremely well thought out/planned
please keep us updated with some pix as you finish it up

Dean
 
jlehigh said:
Thanks for the response DrB. Let's see if I can restate the question. Say your flow is currently being fed to the left side. The flow will hit the first outlets first then hit the subsequent outlets off the same pipe. Wouldn't the first outlet on each pipe push the most water.

So looking at the sad visual below. The flow in outlet 1 would be different than the flow out of outlet 2 as well as outlet 3.
1 2 3
->---O----O-----O
Click to expand...

Okay I understand now. Like it has been said, I am pretty much getting backpressure so each outlet is pretty darn close to being the same flow rate. I actually checked this with my hand when i did the leakdown test because i didnt want suprises. So not a totally accurate measuring device lol. The key here is to get a big enough pump, and I get exceptional flow out of each outlet.

However if there was to be different amounts of flow out of each outlet it would go like this, on MY setup. Other people have theirs setup differently here....

1 2 3 T 4 5 6

Looking at this, output 1 and 6 would get the most ammount of flow because the water is going to push towards them and then pressurize the system. Then thebackpressure will fill 2 and 5 and then 3 and 4. So your flow rates will be like that.. does that make sense?
I do feel a little(I mean slight) ammount of more flow from 1 and 6 than i do the others. All the rest feel the same though.
Now does that help?
 
Perfect and makes great sense now. I ask because even though I have started drilling my tank I am still concerned about my overall flow and have time to change, but I'll leave that for my threads and keeps this focused on your beauty ;)

Thanks again
 
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