220 Gallons of Eye Candy

Drywall is the devil, I am so glad we finished that up last night.

 

Man your build is coming along great. Tell me you snatched those lights up already?

And I know what you mean about the drywall is the devil.

 

Hahaha There hasn't been one person I know that has every enjoyed drywall, it's a whole task in itself. It honestly takes either a crazy person or a guy like me that can actually enjoy it, even the sanding isn't so bad but when you get to work in the Arctic and be apart of building schools for local communities out that way it puts a whole new meaning to drywall.

My hole I made with a zip disc and hammer drill, worst part this was 2 hours Lol All I need for Christmas is a 30lbs jack hammer If you notice that's the main water line coming in... Not cool!! It's a tight squeeze to add on to this floor drain but I think we can, that pee trap comes up almost too high. Hopefully we can get a least our 1 degree angle on our 10ft section we're adding.

I will admit, I'd take on drywall dust over concrete dust any day LOL

 

I havent got the lights yet, we work conflicting schedules, I will pick them up Saturday. I talked down to $325.

 

I've been running into a few snags. Being new to the whole 'large aquarium' side of things, I am struggling with the plumbing part a bit (aka drains and returns). My other issue where to locate the sump. I would like everything in the fish room, but if I had a failure that room would be ruined. My original plan was to build a "Tub" of sorts around the sump that would have a drain to the basement. Water would be directed toward the drain into the basment drain, in theory avoiding a flood. I (as a second thought) thought of locating the the sump in the basement, but I dont really want to run pipe that long. My concerns with this is a large return pump and amount of water that will fill in the sump if and when I had a power failure. Ahh decisions, decisions...

 

My take on plumbing is this... You are correct with the return lines coming up through the overflow boxes, I do find those types of overflows are noisy to say the least, but there are a few siphon options that you can do to quiet them down. This may include drilling another hole or using one of the return holes for a siphon.

I always say, keep the sump as close as possible to the tank itself for a few reasons; Less head pressure on the pump is #1, easier maintenance to the sump eg; changing socks or mechanical media and of course having to check on the sump on a daily basis just for reassurance that everything is going smoothly.

One suggestion for the 55g tank is you could always hunt down a cheaper larger scratched up tank for the same price you sell the 55g for. I managed to pick up a 65g for 40 bucks for my sump (still trying to find a 6 foot 100g but haven't come across one yet)

In order to prevent floods you can make a few precautions in the setup; always have your sump water volume lower than what your system will drain off after power failure.
Mimic this by simply turning off your return pump after you've filled to minimum capable water level to run without running dry and make a small mark to measure to amount the system drains after you shut the pump off. <-- this is a necessary step. That way you know how much to fill your sump and or where to place an ATO.
If you can add a drain to a floor drain by all means do so, that will save your house and any huge insurance claims.

Bottom line, head pressure sure puts a drag in flow I plan on using my quiet one 9000 or 16000, the 9000 makes 2040 @ 1' head, my system should make around 5-10 feet of head so by the time it hits the tank its flowing around 1600-1000gph which is around 5-7x turnover. I would like to use the 16000 and run my reactors and my DIY venturi skimmer I want to make. It's up to you with how much flow you are wanting through your system. A lot of people make the mistake of miss calculating head pressure but I assure you make sure the pump has enough head pressure to handle the flow you're looking for.

 

Casper the ghost LOL

 

Great response. I have some brainstorming to do.

 

Another thing to consider is using two smaller pumps to give you the turnover rate your looking for. By doing this, you can have one pump hooked up to a "future" battery backup, this option is something you may want to consider if you've ever lose power for long periods of time.

 

So I have decided to locate everything in the "fish room". It seems more reasonable for me to put my sumps under the tank as opposed to downstairs in the basement. This evening I will brainstorm a drain system that will go to my basement drain. Hopefully get started on the plumbing this weekend.