Plumbing help

[LaurieC]

I've put together a dry fit and before cementing the PVC, wanted to post the plans and photos for thoughts from those more experienced than myself since this is my first plumbing job. I've used sched. 40 PVC pipe and fittings. The drain is 1" PVC. The return and all other plumbing is 3/4" PVC. The return pump is a Marineland Submersible Utility pump 5500. It has a maximum flow of 1385 gph.

http://www.marineland.com/sites/Marineland/products/productdetail.aspx?id=2054&cid=3598&mid=3226

The return pump is servicing the return to the DT, water up to a frag tank, and also water up to a display fuge (located 5 1/2' up from sump) that gravity feeds back to display tank.

A seperate Quiet One 3000 located in the return section of sump will pump water through vynal tubing to the chiller and breturn to the DT.

The DT is a 90G. The display fuge is 15G High. The frag tank is a mini frag tank 10G max. and will return to the skimmer section of the sump.

There is a Two Little Fishies Phosban reactor with Phosban off the left side of the sump and that will be fed by a minijet 404 located in the skimmer section.

There is a second Two Little Fishies reactor with Carbon off the left side of sump and that will be fed by a minijet 606 located in the skimmer section.

A pdf of sketched plans attached along with photos.

How's this look? What am I forgetting? Thoughts? Thanks!!!

 

[rkaragozler]

looks good so far
1-do not use a ball valve on your drain side
2- why do you have so may unions?
3- instead of using 90 degrees try using 45's, unless you have no choice
4- also the union above the sump looks like it is goung to interfere with you changing your socks, I would flip it around the other way

 

[beerfish]

Seems like a lot of total flow for a 1" drain. (Although I didn't run calculations, I just glanced at the setup.) I would just verify that you are able to drain everything. Remember, ultimately everything in your setup is draining into the display tank, then to the sump. You need to make sure you can drain the entire volume of the return pump and the Quiet One pump (minus head loss).

Also, consider where you'll be taking your temperature readings from carefully, as you want don't want to be measuring right near the chiller output.

 

[LaurieC]

looks good so far
1-do not use a ball valve on your drain side
2- why do you have so may unions?
3- instead of using 90 degrees try using 45's, unless you have no choice
4- also the union above the sump looks like it is goung to interfere with you changing your socks, I would flip it around the other way

1 and 4. Maybe remove the ball valve and put union there instead?
2. want to be able to take everything apart for servicing--the unions come just before walls so I can take out lines of pipe.
3. I know I'm bummed about all the 90's. I tried the 45's and couldn't get them to work. Was especially bummed about the 90 on the drain.

Thanks!!! btw, you must recognize, this is basically what we'd discussed a couple of weeks ago, with a few tweaks

 

[LaurieC]

Seems like a lot of total flow for a 1" drain. (Although I didn't run calculations, I just glanced at the setup.) I would just verify that you are able to drain everything. Remember, ultimately everything in your setup is draining into the display tank, then to the sump. You need to make sure you can drain the entire volume of the return pump and the Quiet One pump (minus head loss).

Also, consider where you'll be taking your temperature readings from carefully, as you want don't want to be measuring right near the chiller output.

How do I calculate this?

Temp.: Heaters in the skimmer section. I have a temp probe with my Aqua Controller III, I thought I should place the probe in the return section of the sump? The Chiller will drain into the DT with an Eshopps return jet like this:

http://www.saltwatercritters.com/inc/sdetail/3970

That's the same return jet I plan to use on the fuge too.

Will that be ok for temp readings or should I do something else?

 

[Imbarrie]

You basically have everything returning to your DT.

Return pump to DT
Return pump to frag tank to DT
Return pump to fuge to DT
Quiet one to chiller to DT

Is this too much going to your DT? This will ultimately go to a 1" drain back to the sump through a number of 90deg.
Keep in mind that right now the plumbing is in an optimal pristine state. What about when scale and organisms build up?

Can you separate your frag and chiller from your fuge and DT feeds?

Quiet one to chiller to frag tank to sump
Return to DT
Return to fuge to DT

OR

Could you gravity feed your chiller from your DT? Since that is where most of the heat is getting absorbed it would be the best place to chill it.
I have never run a chiller so Im not sure if you can.
I am mostly concerned you have a lot of volume going through your DT drain.

With any engineering project I try to keep a focus on efficiency and simplicity.

 

[masterswimmer]

Laurie, No need for the ball valve on the drain. The only purpose it would serve is to accidentally cause a clog on the overflow! Worst place for a clog in the entire system.

Now to address the 90 on the overflow.....Can you possibly shorten the pvc coming straight down from the bulkhead, put a 45 on it to direct the next piece of pvc to the filter sock? The angle looks like it will work.

Russ

 

[LaurieC]

You basically have everything returning to your DT.

Return pump to DT
Return pump to frag tank to DT
Return pump to fuge to DT
Quiet one to chiller to DT

Is this too much going to your DT? This will ultimately go to a 1" drain back to the sump through a number of 90deg.
Keep in mind that right now the plumbing is in an optimal pristine state. What about when scale and organisms build up?

Can you separate your frag and chiller from your fuge and DT feeds?

Quiet one to chiller to frag tank to sump
Return to DT
Return to fuge to DT

OR

Could you gravity feed your chiller from your DT? Since that is where most of the heat is getting absorbed it would be the best place to chill it.
I have never run a chiller so Im not sure if you can.
I am mostly concerned you have a lot of volume going through your DT drain.

With any engineering project I try to keep a focus on efficiency and simplicity.

The Frag tank returns to the skimmer section of the sump

the fuge, chiller and sump return to the DT. I could return the chiller to the return section of the sump, but then I'd loose the extra flow in the DT?

 

[LaurieC]

Laurie, No need for the ball valve on the drain. The only purpose it would serve is to accidentally cause a clog on the overflow! Worst place for a clog in the entire system.

Now to address the 90 on the overflow.....Can you possibly shorten the pvc coming straight down from the bulkhead, put a 45 on it to direct the next piece of pvc to the filter sock? The angle looks like it will work.

Russ

Ok will remove bv on the drain, wondered about that. I'll put the union there instead of just above the filter sock.

When I tried the 45 the pipe angles out away from the filter sock, rather than into it. I'll look again tonight and play with it some more.

I'm trying to figure out about this question re how much is draining through my 1" drain and if it is too much. And if it makes more sense to return the chiller to the sump than the DT

 

[InfernoST]

Laurie, No need for the ball valve on the drain. The only purpose it would serve is to accidentally cause a clog on the overflow! Worst place for a clog in the entire system.

Now to address the 90 on the overflow.....Can you possibly shorten the pvc coming straight down from the bulkhead, put a 45 on it to direct the next piece of pvc to the filter sock? The angle looks like it will work.

Russ

What about 1" vinyl tubing?

 

[rkaragozler]

laurie check out this site for flow rates
http://flexpvc.com/WaterFlowBasedOnPipeSize.shtml

 

[InfernoST]

What size pumps are you going to run?

 

[ming]

Since this is all dry fit, keep in mind the PVC actually can go in further in the elbows after you apply glue, so they might end up a little short.
Also, I like the unions and would advise putting it where you you it might make life easier if you ever need to remove a piece so I have no issues with all the unions.
Although if you have a union vertically, try put the part which turns on the upper part. (your first pic with the drain has it upside down). This is because when you screw it together, its easier putting it back together when gravity is with you, instead of having to push it up while turning. It'll work either way though, you just might get tired and frustrated quicker if it doesn't line up probably right away while holding up after a long day of work.

Besides the points above, I didn't take the time to actually read what's going where. Do you have a bigger pic of how everything is laid out?

 

[afernandez]

plumbing not fun lol gave me headache for days lol good luck seems you have most of it down