help with my tank plans with questions :)

So here is my Plan for a FOWLER tank excuse my Computer drawing skills

Tank Specs: Situated less than a meter from an aircon
The main tank is 72"x30"x24" aquarium sitting on a metal Stand
(2) 35"x18"x24" aquriums beneath it. Planning to turn the 2 into sumps.
The total height of tank from floor to tank is 5 foot 8 inches

Plan:
the drain pipes would be designed after the bean animals design on a full calfo overflow using 1.5 drain pipes
and the sump would be doing a refuge/sump on sump A and on the other maybe another refuge or a cheato sump if i can fully understand the designs but sump design is subject to change


so here are my questions sir/s

-What's the best measurement for the Calfo Overflow width and height ?

-Im planning to connect sump B to A with a pump then the return pump to tank would be a high rating pump, or its better that i do 2 return pumps strait to the tank?

-How can i "prime: the (2) upside down drain pumps? are they automatic?

-Also what pumps and skimmer are the recommended for my tank im open to either external or internal skimmers


Lastly do you pvc glue the pipes? or use the teflon only

Sirs
All suggestions/ revisions/ comments are greatly and openly appreciated
especially the sump design hehehe


PS

if my experience and knowledge permits hehehe I'll be upgrading to Reef

Sorry for the extra noob post sirs i just want my tank to be properly planned before i have my tank drilled

 

Good day,

Welcome to 3Reef...

You will find many good ideas documented into the forums on this board which you'll want to consider as you work through your planning process.

Be sure to browse through the forums for filters, refugiums, skimmers and lighting.

Return pumps, the more pumps you have in the water, the more heat you have to deal with... but that vent duct may help you... even so you may want to consider raising one tank higher than the other and setting up a syphon drain from one to the other to remove both the heat and maintenance...

As for the piping, if you use a PVC slip joint fitting, they will need to be glued, if it is a PVC pipe thread, then I'd recommend the Teflon pipe joint compound over Teflon tape to reduce the chance of splitting a fitting.

 

Thanks grubbsj for the answer,

i think i can no longer raise the other sump for the distance of from sump top to the bottom of the main tank is only 8"

 

That is tight. It will likely limit your choices for skimmers and refugium lighting and other equipment. I suspect that you will need to spend time considering your daily/weekly/monthly maintenance requirements as part of your build to reduce the long term difficulty of maintaining your system. If it gets too hard, you'll be less likely to do it.

 

Since you will have two tanks beneath is it possible to fit a larger one under the main tank to limit the amount of pumps you will need. If not I would consider two external pumps to the main tank to prevent an accidental overflow from tank A to B or vice versa. Maybe you could find a way to put two bulkheads in each tank and plumb them together to illiminate the need for the second pump. I would also consider an in sump skimmer to prevent any kind of overflow.

 

Thanks really appreciate the inputs

Skimmer is my another problem because looking for a skimmer that is small but can handle my setup is getting hard hehehe

How bout an eheim i think the eheim pump can go unsubmerged ????

 

why all the baffles in the sumps? seems like they are too high if the grey is where you want the water level in your sump to be, maybe 5" of water?

 

Im sorry for not labeling the grey part in the sump that would be the Sand or live rocks or my planned refuguim