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My 200+ Gallon Miracles Build


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Nice setup so far man. Love your sump. Very curious how does the two frag boxes work. I see the drain from them but how does the water flow works when water in your sump will never reach that high. Just curious to know your plans.

 

The boxes work off a second pump. It pumps water into the boxes and then they drain back into the main compartment of the sump.

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The boxes work off a second pump. It pumps water into the boxes and then they drain back into the main compartment of the sump.

 

Nice. Work.

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Nice. Work.

 

I wish i could take credit for this sump, but i bought it from Mchippo who had it custom buil for his 300 gallon tank.

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Bob,

 

I did not plumb a valve on the return pump. I have a second emergency drain to handle that if for some reason the main drain clogs, I have another 1.5" unrestricted drain going into the sump. I also had a cover built for my overflow box so that nothing can get inside it, unless it squeezes through the teeth in the overflow.

 

whats going to the left side of the sump? is that the emergency drain?

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Sorry, coming to the party late here and maybe this was discussed elsewhere.... I'm concerned about your sump pump setup. Where does your sump pump drain to? It shouldn't be to the sanitary sewer line, that's against code. Assuming it is setup to code, you have a "daylight" outlet for it somewhere on your property or it goes to a septic tank. If it goes to a septic tank, you're probably fine. If you are draining to your lawn or near a tree, you've got a problem.

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whats going to the left side of the sump? is that the emergency drain?

 

the picture of the 1.5" gate valve is the main drain. The emergency drain is exiting to the other side, straight into the sump. I will post a better pic tonight.

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Sorry, coming to the party late here and maybe this was discussed elsewhere.... I'm concerned about your sump pump setup. Where does your sump pump drain to? It shouldn't be to the sanitary sewer line, that's against code. Assuming it is setup to code, you have a "daylight" outlet for it somewhere on your property or it goes to a septic tank. If it goes to a septic tank, you're probably fine. If you are draining to your lawn or near a tree, you've got a problem.

 

The fish tank sump drains into the sump pump for the house that pumps it way out to the back field of my property. There is really nothing out there that I am worried about. Plus my house has a water softner, which softens the water will salt too.

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the picture of the 1.5" gate valve is the main drain. The emergency drain is exiting to the other side, straight into the sump. I will post a better pic tonight.

 

 

Here is that pic.

 

8177648A-0CB3-4F91-8A47-F2E73FEE2739-15766-000017AAF5C83DA1.jpg

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No need. I just was wondering how you had it in there, so I can copy off you in the coming days...

 

Do you find a 4" difference enough to work with without going crazy tuning it?

 

The four inches seems to work just fine. The gate valve is awesome for tuning. I only had it running for about 2 hours, but it didn't move once i found the sweet spot. There was about 2.5" or so to play with.

 

E5B598EB-F623-40C0-B4B6-E3D58334EB8D-15766-00001864FB9A51AA.jpg

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I'm curious, the overflow only uses 2 drain pipes- one at full siphon and the other is a dry failover? Kinda like Bean Animal but without that partial drain pipe? Any special reason for this? Don't think that 3rd one is needed? I been thinking about reworking my overflow pipes so I've been re-reading the BA setup.

 

One thing I have wondered about is how well the full siphon drain will stay in tune. I feel like my return pump flow changes over time. As things get dirty it seems like I get less flow. It doesn't help that I tap off some of my return flow to my frag and isolation tanks and sometimes change how much I use there. The 3rd/partial drain pipe seemed like a good idea because if flow increases slightly for some reason, it wouldn't have to get up the emergency pipe before something takes care of it.

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This method is called the Herbie. I just liked it because it was easier to set up. I am hoping that it will stay in tune. I haven't read any issues with that. I was going to run a second pump for my frag tank since i didn't know how that would affect the main pump.

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Ok, where are the pics? I know you have water, sand and rock in that thing now!!

 

That's true...i just finished getting the last of the water in this afternoon. Couldn't take pics till it was finished. It is still a little cloudy and there are some things i still need to do, but here are some shots from this evening.

 

Full shot

DSC_1144-1.jpg

 

left side

DSC_1145-1.jpg

 

center

DSC_1146-1.jpg

 

right side

DSC_1147-1.jpg

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I like it, but I think your rock height is to uniform. I'd add some height to one side or the other.

 

Jm2c

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Yup I would go with the smaller package. I got some from my buddy and didn't use that much. So I would think u could get away with the smaller one unless u are getting a lot of small rocks to make structures.

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I like it, but I think your rock height is to uniform. I'd add some height to one side or the other.

 

Jm2c

 

My tank is only 22 inches high with a 20" waterline. I can't go that high with the rocks, but I'm planning on moving one of the structures from the left side to the right side.

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