- Location
- Marine Park
You're still not getting the setup. Check my pics again for proper setup of a gravity drain.
Jejton's Tank Thread
- Thread starter jejton
- Start date
I'm confused. What is wrong with my setup? I have a tee off the drain, with the horizontal bar leading to the fuge and the vertical bar leading to the skimmer ( I just couldnt draw it on the diagram because it would have been too cluttered over there but I noted it in the caption ). I have a ball valve before the skimmer. I put one before the 'fuge just in case I need to work over there and want to shut off the drain.
- Location
- Marine Park
That is better! 
I'd swap the skimmer spot and fuge spot though. You want as long a run as possible from the vertical end of the T to your skimmer. Linear inches count here as the longer the run, the longer air has to escape back up to the horizontal spout of the T.
Side note: You may want to try using a Y instead of a T. You can find a Y that will spout out horizontally as a T does but the innards are more of a Y than a T. Lowes has it in a separate section than the normal PVC parts. It's for plumbing water lines like for washing machine drains or slop sink stuff etc. It's with the PVC traps.
I'd swap the skimmer spot and fuge spot though. You want as long a run as possible from the vertical end of the T to your skimmer. Linear inches count here as the longer the run, the longer air has to escape back up to the horizontal spout of the T.
Side note: You may want to try using a Y instead of a T. You can find a Y that will spout out horizontally as a T does but the innards are more of a Y than a T. Lowes has it in a separate section than the normal PVC parts. It's for plumbing water lines like for washing machine drains or slop sink stuff etc. It's with the PVC traps.
Oiy vey. Before I had the skimmer section on the far side from the drain and was told that i needed the skimmer to be on the vertical run, now you're telling me i need the skimmer on the far side so that i have a longer horizontal run? The schematic is not to scale but I noted that there is a 22" vertical distance from the drain to skimmer inlet. Is that not enough? I'm trying to keep the plumbing as simple as possible so that I dont have a mess of PVC pipes in the cabinet but if you think it will make a big difference, then I will switch it around again.
- Location
- Marine Park
You're confusing things. Here's the "skinny" on gravity feeding:
1. You want to place a "T" below your drain so that it has a top, bottom and one port facing out to the side.
2. The verticle side of the "T", directly below the input from the drain will feed the skimmer.
3. The skimmer, ideally, will be as far from this T as possible. The farther away it is the better. Keep in mind good plumbing practices, you want a downward slope the full way from the T to the skimmer.
4. The output from the side port will empty into a fuge, skimmer whatever. This will be a water and air mix so plan accordingly.
1. You want to place a "T" below your drain so that it has a top, bottom and one port facing out to the side.
2. The verticle side of the "T", directly below the input from the drain will feed the skimmer.
3. The skimmer, ideally, will be as far from this T as possible. The farther away it is the better. Keep in mind good plumbing practices, you want a downward slope the full way from the T to the skimmer.
4. The output from the side port will empty into a fuge, skimmer whatever. This will be a water and air mix so plan accordingly.
- Location
- Marine Park
Perfect!!!!
The closer the ball valve is to the skimmer the better.
My examples were all ideals, BTW. Ideally we'd like a lot of things with our reefs and often we have to compromise. Being that yours wasn't setup yet I recommended the changes that I would do in your situation. When the one I referenced was setup it was fairly close to the drain. I compensated by turning the input of the skimmer away from the drain and using as much pipe as I could to get from point A to point B over a gradual decline. For the small space constraint it worked well.
With all things reef related I don't think there is any "best way" and anything you do will require some tweaking to make it your best with your setup. I guess that's one of the things I like about reefing is that all of our tanks are VERY different no matter how similar they may seem.
The closer the ball valve is to the skimmer the better.
My examples were all ideals, BTW. Ideally we'd like a lot of things with our reefs and often we have to compromise. Being that yours wasn't setup yet I recommended the changes that I would do in your situation. When the one I referenced was setup it was fairly close to the drain. I compensated by turning the input of the skimmer away from the drain and using as much pipe as I could to get from point A to point B over a gradual decline. For the small space constraint it worked well.
With all things reef related I don't think there is any "best way" and anything you do will require some tweaking to make it your best with your setup. I guess that's one of the things I like about reefing is that all of our tanks are VERY different no matter how similar they may seem.
Why did my post show up in the middle of the thread?
Ok well I'm glad I finally got a good plan. I already bought the plumbing for the return. Tomorrow I will go pick up the plumbing for the drains, along with some other things like DIY Cal/Alk ingredients, shims and gutter guard. I really would like to get the rock curing but I can't get in touch with anyone at Marco and am waiting to see if they got the shipment in yet. Anyone know where I can find nylon bolts and nuts? I want to try live framing ( as depicted in an article by Gregory Sykes in Marine Fish and Reef 2008 Annual ) but when I asked the guy at HD he had no clue what I was talking about and suggested I use stainless steel. I am toying around with different scaping ideas. The main theme will be to keep as much rock in the sump as possible but still have enough for some interesting and functional aquascaping in the display. This method looks promising but I have yet to find anyone who used it. I also looked into using PVC racks but am not sure how much rock a piece of eggrate can hold up.
Ok well I'm glad I finally got a good plan. I already bought the plumbing for the return. Tomorrow I will go pick up the plumbing for the drains, along with some other things like DIY Cal/Alk ingredients, shims and gutter guard. I really would like to get the rock curing but I can't get in touch with anyone at Marco and am waiting to see if they got the shipment in yet. Anyone know where I can find nylon bolts and nuts? I want to try live framing ( as depicted in an article by Gregory Sykes in Marine Fish and Reef 2008 Annual ) but when I asked the guy at HD he had no clue what I was talking about and suggested I use stainless steel. I am toying around with different scaping ideas. The main theme will be to keep as much rock in the sump as possible but still have enough for some interesting and functional aquascaping in the display. This method looks promising but I have yet to find anyone who used it. I also looked into using PVC racks but am not sure how much rock a piece of eggrate can hold up.
- Location
- poughquag, ny
i have the same ro-di unit, as for ph i would have gotten 2 tunze nano 6025's would have cost less than the oother 3 together and a much better ph as well as you can mod the tunze so you can get around 1000gph out of each. glad your planning it out complete before just rushing in to set-up, will save you $$$$
I have basically everything I need for plumbing except for the 1 1/2" ball valves and unions and the reducing coupler/hose barb - HD didnt have them. So now I'm looking on Savko and am a little confused. Is this the part I need to connect the PVC with vinyl tubing to the skimmer - 474005 ( savko.com )? They call it an insert fitting. Also, what is the difference between a reducing coupler, bushing and spigot? Now I cant find reducing couplings on the savko site. I checked plumbing supply.com and they have reducing bushings and couplers. The couplers go one incremement at a time ( 1 x .75, .75 x .5 " ) so I would need to use a 1.5x1.25, 1.25x1, 1x.75, and .75x.5 with a section of PVC between each, which is a PITA. Then I found this piece -#437-209 PVC Bushing - SpxS - 1 1/2" x 1/2"#437-209 PVC Bushing - SpxS - 1 1/2" x 1/2". Would this work equally as well? Can I then just insert the 1/2" slipxhose barb fitting into that?
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Don't you think you went a little overboard thereI did order an RO/DI unit from an eBay seller ( he had 8000+ ratings so I figured it was worth a shot ). It was $100 shipped for a 100 gpd 5 stage system.
I also got a Hanna TDS meter from another eBay seller and that arrived already. Do I need to use RO/DI for curing my rock?
?Just use tank water to cure(RO/DI mixed with salt and stuff)
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