37g plumbing critique

[Anonymous]

I have a 37g Oceanic that I am going to set up as a reef tank for sps and clams. The tank measures 24" x 18" x 21"high. I am working through my plumbing configuration and would like some feedback.

The tank is not drilled. However, I plan to pick up some bits so that I can drill holes for 3/4" and 1" bulkheads in the back of the tank. I figure on drilling 2 holes for an overflow and 5 more holes for a closed loop. This is what I plan.

Overflow

2x holes about 6" below the top and maybe 6" apart for 1" bulkheads. 1 of these bulkheads will drain directly to the sump, and will include a gate valve to limit flow (to force water through the Durso). The other bulkhead hole will have an external Durso that will only carry a small amount of the flow to the sump - perhaps to a refugium. I will build a skimmer box on the inside of the tank (enclosing the bulkheads) to maintain the appropriate water level in the tank and skim the top surface.

Returns (2) will be over the back of the tank and directed towards the front of the tank.

I figure this arrangment is good for about 600-700 gph if I don't try and run too much water through the Durso (which I don't want to keep things quiet).

Closed Loop

I plan to drill another hole for a 1" bulkhead at about mid-tank (below the skimmer box) to act as an intake for the closed loop. The retruns will be through 4x 3/4" bulkheads spaced along the back of the tank about 3"-6" from the bottom. 2 of the returns will be directed though the rock and towards the front of the tank. The other 2 returns will pop out of the sand near the front corners of teh tank, and will be pointed towards the back of the tank and a 45 degree upward angle.

The return flow will be through an Ocean's Motions wave making device (Sprite?), which directs the flow through 1.5 returns at any one time. I will probably push about 1000 gph through the closed loop.

That gives me 1600-1700 gph, which is 45x the display tank turn-over.

Sorry, no diagrams.

Any comments???? Thanks.

 

[Anonymous]

doesnt sound to bad to me- in fact it sounds similar to a larger scale setup I read about(cant remember if it was here or on RC)

The only thing I would be concerned with(and its not THAT big a concern) is the closed loop inlets - do you plan on having critters in the tank(shrimp, crabs, small fish)? for that reason, I'd put them inside the overflow as well if possible.

 

[Anonymous]

doesnt sound to bad to me- in fact it sounds similar to a larger scale setup I read about(cant remember if it was here or on RC)

The only thing I would be concerned with(and its not THAT big a concern) is the closed loop inlets - do you plan on having critters in the tank(shrimp, crabs, small fish)? for that reason, I'd put them inside the overflow as well if possible.

Yea, I thought about that - and I may still do that. If I don't, then I plan to T the intake on the inside of the tank and put a couple of large strainers to keep the critters out. This should be hidden by the rock, so it won't be visible.

My concern about putting it inside the overflow is that I am then forcing a lot of water over the top of the overflow, which can cause a lot of noise and salt spray. I not sure that this is a real concern, so I will give your suggestion some more thought.

Thanks.

 

[Anonymous]

Return and closed loop pumps?

 

[Anonymous]

I don't think you want the CL intake inside the overflow box, for the exact reason you mentioned.

The only thing that stuck out to me was that you plan to have a lot of holes (6?) on a small piece of glass. Are you worried about the strength of the glass, or did I read that wrong?

 

[Anonymous]

You're asking for trouble swiss-cheesing your back glass like that. Can you penetrate the 2 CL outputs in the front corners through the bottom pane? <Matt asks w/o knowing if Oceanic bottoms are tempered> Do you have a canopy, and if so can you place CL outputs inside that?

Do you plan on putting an elbow for the Durso inside the tank? How far inside the tank will the overflow box penetrate? What width do you plan on making the overflow box?

 

[Anonymous]

You're asking for trouble swiss-cheesing your back glass like that. Can you penetrate the 2 CL outputs in the front corners through the bottom pane? <Matt asks w/o knowing if Oceanic bottoms are tempered> Do you have a canopy, and if so can you place CL outputs inside that?

Do you plan on putting an elbow for the Durso inside the tank? How far inside the tank will the overflow box penetrate? What width do you plan on making the overflow box?

Yea, I am concerned a bit about putting 7 holes in the back of the tank. The bottom is tempered, so I cannot go through the bottom. I could, however, run all of my closed loop plumbing over the back. But I really want to hide all of this plumbing if I can - particularly since I want to the outputs to come out of the sand near the front of the tank (per Ocean's Motions recommendations).

One thing to note is that this particular Oceanic tank uses relatively thick glass. I have not measured it (the tank is still at my mothers), but will do so next week when I go to take it down. In any event, my recollection is that the tank has much thicker glass than typical tanks of this size - one of the things that attracted me to it when I bought it many years ago.

I could also silicone another piece of glass to the back of the tank to reinforce the whole panel, then drill my holes through both pieces. If I can, I will talk to a glass manufacturer and see what they say.

As for the overflow box, I plan to put the durso on the outside of the tank. I will run the cap well above the tank water line to make sure there are no leaks. As for the box itself, I am thinking about making this 12" wide x 8" high x 1"-2" front-to-back. The only problem with such a small front-to-back dimension is that I will have to install the bulkheads before I install the overflow box. That's ok, but could be a problem if I ever have to remove/replace the bulkheads at a later date.

That will give me 14"-16" of total length for the weir, which should be plenty to handle the 600-700 gph that I am planning to drain to the sump. I would like to keep the height of the water passing over the weir to about 1/4" to minimize tank water height fluctuations and the amout of water that will drain into the sump during power/pump shut-downs.

As I may of mentioned, this will likely be my last reef tank set-up, so I don't want to cut any corners. I want this to be the ultimate 37g reef tank, but one that is completely self-contained within the tank and stand. Besides, I am looking forward to setting this thing up with all the bells and whistles.

But I am open to other suggestions. Thanks.

ghostofmilz

 

[Anonymous]

I don't think you want the CL intake inside the overflow box, for the exact reason you mentioned.

The only thing that stuck out to me was that you plan to have a lot of holes (6?) on a small piece of glass. Are you worried about the strength of the glass, or did I read that wrong?

Yes, I figured out that I would need too big of an overflow box if I ran the closed-loop input into it. So I will keep the CL intake within the tank.

See my comments to Matt above regarding the number of holes I plan to drill.

Thanks.

gom

 

[Anonymous]

I would do the sump return as you have planned and just slap a vortech with controller on the back glass. You'll end up saving time, money, worry, space, and accomplish virtually the same effect. Just my 2 cents.

FWIW I have a mag 9 as the sole source of water motion in my 33 and its almost too much flow.

 

[Anonymous]

I would do the sump return as you have planned and just slap a vortech with controller on the back glass. You'll end up saving time, money, worry, space, and accomplish virtually the same effect. Just my 2 cents.

FWIW I have a mag 9 as the sole source of water motion in my 33 and its almost too much flow.

I must have been out of it for too long - I don't know anything about the vortech devices. I will look into this. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Anonymous]

Ok. The limited digging that I have done suggests that the Vortech device is a very good alternative to my original plan, which was to add a closed loop using an Ocean's Motions Squirt and a Mag 9.5.

The Vortech is more $$ than the Squirt/Mag 9.5 combo, but it does avoid a lot of plumbing and drilled holes (5) through the back of my tank.

A few questions:

1) Will the Vortech work well if I mount it on the back of the tank?

2) If so, then should it be mounted near the top and above the rocks?

3) If so, then should I move the overflow box towards one side so that the Vortech can be mounted closer to the center of the tank?

 

[Anonymous]

Ok. The limited digging that I have done suggests that the Vortech device is a very good alternative to my original plan, which was to add a closed loop using an Ocean's Motions Squirt and a Mag 9.5.

The Vortech is more $$ than the Squirt/Mag 9.5 combo, but it does avoid a lot of plumbing and drilled holes (5) through the back of my tank.

A few questions:

1) Will the Vortech work well if I mount it on the back of the tank?

2) If so, then should it be mounted near the top and above the rocks?

3) If so, then should I move the overflow box towards one side so that the Vortech can be mounted closer to the center of the tank?

Did you add up the cost of drilling holes, plumbing, bulkheads, etc.?

I don't see a reason why your overflow box needs to be so tall. You only need an inch or so of clearance above the main drain bulkhead to prevent a whirlpool from starting, and you can put a downward pointing elbow inside the tank to prevent this. I think you can get away with an overflow box that's just as wide but only about 3" tall.

See below. (A) is your drain to the fuge, (B) is the main drain with downward facing elbow. (V) is the pump. Keep in mind you'll want to offset both drains to the side so that the plumbing doesn't run into the driver of the Vortech pump. This is how I would do it if I could redesign my tank.

 

[Anonymous]

And you could also place an upward facing elbow on drain (A) to raise the water level further if needed.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the drawing and suggestions Matt. What you suggest makes a lot of sense.

 

[Anonymous]

I just spoke with Mike at Glass-Holes.com. They make overflow boxes and kits that include the bits. They said that they could make me an overflow box with 2x 1" bulkheads that measures about 9" x 1.5" x 4", and that should handle 600-700 max gph flow rate that I paln to run to the sump. THe 4" height of the box will allow me to mount the Vortech pump just below the box about 6-7" from the top of the tank, which should work fine.

Thanks for the suggestion Matt.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the drawing and suggestions Matt. What you suggest makes a lot of sense.

That's why I get paid the big bucks. 8) :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Update - I am looking into a "boxless" overflow design based in part on Matt's suggestions. It is described in more detail in the DIY section.