CaptainRon's 200 Marineland Deep Dimension

[steveoutlaw]

Ok Ron, we need some updated pics.

[YHSublime]

Ok Ron, we need some updated pics.

 

Yeah!

[CaptainRon]

I don't have any pictures just now, but I can report that algae is growing in the tank. I stucks a couple poylps of zoas and a broken piece of hydnophora in the 200 to see if they's die right away or not (they didn't) so had been running lights for a bit everyday I haven't built the sump yet so don't even have the overflows running. Hopefully the pieces for the sump will come be available this weekend and I can get the sump built on Saturday.

 

With any luck, plumbing and hole in the wall will start on Sunday. Realistically, I expect to have a wet sump the weekend of 3/23-3/24. At least I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that that date doesn't slip

[DaveS]

With a bean, seems to me you knida need the drains in the same overflow. With 2 corner overflows that are the exact same height, you will have a hard time with one being the full siphon and the other being trickle. The water will overflow into both equally which means not enough for the full siphon and too much for the "trickle". You'll need to ,are the full siphon overflow lower but that creates different problems.

[CaptainRon]

I've thought about that Dave. I've done a little reading on what other folks have done with dual overflows and it ranges from doing nothing to installing a small coast to coast inside the tank to connect the two overflows.

 

I've thought about doing several things:

1 - Installing an "L" made out of acrylic and connecting the two overflows after cutting out a corner in the overflows.

2- Installing a piece of 1" pvc, painted black or blue, to connect the two overflows (Or whatever size PVC can fit in the existing holes for the return lines)

3 - Doing nothing and just dropping a powerhead in the overflow that'll have very very low flow in it.

 

I don't think water will flow equally into both overflows. Water will go to were the flow is. It seems like the bean animal design will have to have three different heights for the drain lines. Lowest for the siphon, middle for the trickle and highest for the emergency - I'm just not sure what those implecations are.

 

I think I may give the bean animal design a try with the two separate overflows and see what happens. It'll either be a great success or my first post after installing it will be about the flood in my fish "room" lol

[Der ABT]

its suprisingly easy to cut out the overflows with the right tools....well not easy but not that hard either...could get it done in about 3hrs if yuor not interrupted by little ones. did this on mine and its amazing how much more room you gain.

 

ive plugged the 4 holes in the bottom of mine and will either keep them plugged or runa closed look at some point, granted you have water in it so that would be a little harder....

 

i would think a bean would work though....just cut the full syphon lower than than the trickle, and then have the emergency set above all three..eventually the water would get over the top of the overflows and cause the emergency to kick in.

[CaptainRon]

Ideally, I'd have liked to do something like you're currently doing on your build - but I have no room behind the tank. Pulling the overflows out would have been easy I agree, I've done it before. But I just didn't really know what else I'd do because of my space limitation. I probably should have gone with a 30 or even 24 inch wide tank, but I got sucked in and shoe-horned in the 36 inch wide tank into the corner

 

Here's a picture of what I was talking about with adding an "L" to connect the two overflows. It's from this thread on reefcentral.

 

 

 

 

 

I just don't know if I really need to do that. I've seen where BeanAnimal recomended installing the siphon and trickle in one box and the return and emergency in the other box. He even recomended making the box with the return and emergency a deep sandbed. But I'm thinking about switching it up a little since I have one box that I'll never be able to really see. It would seem to me that keeping the siphon visible would be critical - I was thinking about putting the siphon and return in the right side box (visible) and the trickle and emergency in the other corner box (not visible) along with dropping in a powerhead.

[DaveS]

So I thought about this a little more. I think it's possible to do this. I see you just mentioned having the full siphon and trickle in the same overflow. I think that's the way to go. Then in the other overflow is the emergency which is higher up. With this approach, basically only one overflow is being actively used in the tank and the other is only for the emergency.

 

I think you should give it a try before you start hacking everything else us. It should only take a few minutes and a few lengths of PVC pipe. If it works, great you can pretty it up a little later. If it doesn't work, you didn't spend a whole lot of time.

[CaptainRon]

I think that's what I'm going to do Dave (instead of the way I said I was going to do it). Siphon and trickle on the right hand side (visible), return and emergency on the left hand side (not visible). I'll also stick a powerhead and a small length of tubing in the left hand side just to keep some flow in that box and not let that column of water get stagnant.

[CaptainRon]

So I got my sump built today with help from my Dad and my son, Troy. We stopped by Blue Ribbon Koi to pick up a tube of silicone. Thanks very much for putting it aside for me yesterday John!! It was a good thing I called last night because John said I got the last tube!.

 

Then we went off to Artfully Acrylic to pick up the sump parts that I had ordered from Adam last week. Adam went way out of his way to make my parts for me - due to his supplier being a little flakey with timelines, last night it looked like I wasn't going to get my parts until next weekend. Adam could tell I was less than happy with that news as I got a call from him about 10 minutes later saying that he'd have everything for me, no thanks to his supplier. Thanks Adam!

 

The sump matches the design I posted previously except the 12" dimension noted is now 15" making a skimmer section that is 15" long by about 12 1/8" +/- wide. Not great pictures but here they are!

 

 

 

 

[surf&turf]

Wow, that looks great!!!

[08can-am]

Coming along nicely

[steveoutlaw]

Ron - I would put the full syphon and emergency in one drain and the trickle and return in the other one. One thing to watch out for of you have the full syphon AND trickle in a single overflow, you will have one H-E-double hockey sticks of a waterfall effect in one and nothing in the other. That would be really loud. Also, remember that these are the megaflow overflows, not just over the top. If you put the channel inbetween them like pictured above, I don't think it would do any good. Have you thought about doing a Herbie in both? That's just the full syphon and emergency.......no trickle.

[CaptainRon]

Hmmm good points too Steve.

 

I can't do a herbie in each overflow because I don't have any room between the tank and the wall to bring up a return.

 

I never glue my drains so I'll be able to move some of those things around if needed. That'll give me the opportunity to try to emergency and trickle on each side to see which way works best.

[bravanc]

I have a dual overflow in my tank too. Here is what I have done. I have two returns one in each over flow. My full siphon is in the right overflow about 4 inches below the water line then it goes into a valve and into a sock in the sump skimmer side. The other side is my emergency and is adjust high enough so all the water will not go down the tube based on the adjustment of the valve for the full siphon. It goes straight into the sump skimmer side as well. It is not a true Herbie as the Herbie uses two drains and a emergency mine uses only on full siphon and one emergency. When dialeded in its pretty quiet like the Herbie would be.

[zygote2k]

The funny thing about this 'project' is that you're taking a perfectly good and functioning twin megaflow tank and frankensteining it out.... for what purpose?

If you run 2) durso's, it will be very quiet provided you quiet the flow going into the sump.

If one of the overflows becomes clogged, it shouldn't cause a flood as long as you're not pushing more than 750gph through them.

High flow inside the tank is way more important than flow through the sump. Sump flow is only important enough to provide water for the skimmer and other sump bound accessories.

Seems like a lot of trouble, a lot more piping, and a less visually appearing end result.

Run the tank as it is, and then if it doesn't work, hack it up.

[CaptainRon]

Well, I haven't hacked anything up, yet. I don't look at adding a valve to a drain line as being overly frankensteinish. That being said, I'm asking questions and looking at different options before I acutally do anything.

 

I had my old setup with a durso - and I got it to the point where it was very very quiet. I think the pumps made more noise than the water. With the box that I built into this sump, I think there's a chance that this setup will be even more quiet than the last one. It has to be though because the noises will be in my wife's craft area.

 

I may very well just try the dual durso's and see how it sounds. I said that was what I was going to do before - but then I get thinking about other stuff too and get to asking questions and thinking out loud about what I should do with this.

 

Anyway, still not sure what I'm going to do with it - but I'll make a decision by this weekend because that's when I want to get it plumbed in!

 

The other thing I want to plan on with respect to water movement is putting in a manifold. I think I'll need/want feeds for the following items:

1 - Main Tank

2 - Frag Tank

3 - Refugium

4 - GFO/Carbon

5 - Spare

[mr.x-ray]

The funny thing about this 'project' is that you're taking a perfectly good and functioning twin megaflow tank and frankensteining it out.... for what purpose?

If you run 2) durso's, it will be very quiet provided you quiet the flow going into the sump.

If one of the overflows becomes clogged, it shouldn't cause a flood as long as you're not pushing more than 750gph through them.

High flow inside the tank is way more important than flow through the sump. Sump flow is only important enough to provide water for the skimmer and other sump bound accessories.

Seems like a lot of trouble, a lot more piping, and a less visually appearing end result.

Run the tank as it is, and then if it doesn't work, hack it up.

 

+1. I run dual 1" durso's on my AGA on each end and tank is feed with a Mag 9. The tank is pretty quite. Loudest thing is my light fans and MP40. Or the splashing when the filter socks need to be changed. (Hint to me as Im sitting in front of the tank now)

[CaptainRon]

Being impatient will more than likely get the best of me and I'll end up just installing dual dursos to see how it works then never change them again.

 

Oh and Rob, I didn't mean to give the impression that I was going to actually cut up the overflow to install that suedo coast to coast. Just one of the things I came across while investigating my overflow options. In the end, I agree that it would be a bad idea to hack up a pair of perfectly good overflows.

 

Anyone ever try one of those maggie mufflers and if so did they work any better than a properyly tuned durso?

[CaptainRon]

Didn't make nearly as much progress today and I thought I would!

 

Got the sump from my Dad's house to my house today. Also made a trip to Lowes and got a lot of plumbing parts and pieces. And that was really about it! Ended up doing quite a bit of head scratching planning out how the plumbing is going to go through the wall. The elevation difference between the top of the sump and the bottom of the display tank stand leave very little wiggle room for the pipe - accuracy is going to be important! We also spent a bit of time thinking about how to put together a manifold. I'm going to have a six output mannifold to run the two display returns, a future frag tank, the refugium, a GFO/Carbon reactor, and skimmer. I'm not sure if it's a good idea to feed the skimmer via the manifold, but I thought I'd give it a try.

 

Anyway, here's a few more pictures of my sump and manifold. The manifold isn't glued yet, it's just some temprorary stubs to plan out pipe routing.

 

 

 

Manifold Ports From Left to Right:

Return to DT - Skimmer - GFO - Frag Tank - Pump Feed - Refugium - Return to DT

[monkiboy]

progress is still moving forward - good work.

 

if you're interested in other ideas for the manifold, i love using irrigation system manifolds for my builds as they are sch80, come in various IDs, easily adaptable to .5" RO tubing for reactors, come in quads, triples etc or you can join several together for whatever amount you want.

 

 

i plan to turn a seven or eight on my 265 build for convenience and efficiency. i think you have the right idea in eliminating the need for extra pumps, wattage, and space-hoggers. just make sure to get a pump that can outflow all your need's requirements.

[CaptainRon]

Thanks for the thought Marco - If I didn't have everything already, I might have gone that way. Next time!

 

This has been such a long slow process for me, but I think it'll work out well in the end. My Dad came over and helped me again. We got the drains plumbed in (after all my questions about what to do, I'm going with just the dual dursos to start off with). We also got the manifold built. I'm going to have to make a slight change to the drains - I can't get my lid on the drain box and stick the drain tubes into the 90-degree bends - so I'm going to add a couple unions right as the pipes pass through the wall.

 

I actually need to get myself a new pump too. I only have a Eheim Compact 3000 and that won't be nearly enough to power this.

 

Anyway, here's the photo of today's work

 

[ExoticReefCreations]

Looks very clean! Nice work!

[monkiboy]

looking good, ron!

 

if interested, i have a new water blaster 10000 pump i'll sell you cheap to wrap up that plumbing. it's rated at 2600gph and a 15+ head height so it'll handle the bit of restriction of those turns without worry. shoot me a PM, if that's up your alley.

 

eager to see this tank WET. now with plumbing mostly done, you are so much closer!

[steveoutlaw]

Looks good Ron.