Reef Sparky's 18" x 18" x 18" Nano Build.

Thanks, iLLwiLL!

Yes, that's the final position. The upturned elbow is the emergency drain, and is designed to face upwards. After it's running I'll have more comments, but for now I'm just following the direction of the individual who conceptualized the Bean. He's had his running for almost 5 years.

 

So the plumbing is finished except for the poly tube from the return to the rigid PVC that's ended in a 45 right above the sump. The final 18" or so is soft to minimize vibration.

The sump is a 10 gallon tank, and I added a 2x6 on the back to eliminate lateral movement since there won't be any walls on this stand.











The last pic shows the main drain, the leftmost 1" pipe with the gate valve. The opposite end is the return, in 3/4" and a gate valve. So if this works as it should, almost 100% of the drain will go through the leftmost pipe. That will terminate in a filter sock; yet to be added.

 

Nice and neat plumbing

 

Nice Sparky ....Im tagging along ....some great and simplified ideas here.

 

Thanks again!

Simple is good, Sharkbate. Thanks!

 

Tank is filled with saltwater, sump is in place and return is churning. I'm very impressed by the bean design. It delivers! It's silent. The pictures don't look like a 21 gallon tank running at 30X turnover do they? Well, it is.

I'll place a single baffle in the sump to delineate the return section, where a float valve will go as an ATO. I'm going to run a Tee off the RO/DI input from the 90, just a few feet away.

Still waiting for a pendant housing for my 150W DE halide bulb. I'm not quite sure if the water movement is sufficient for softies, but I'm leaning towards yes. . .

 

That looks great. I have been intrigued by the bean animal, you really made it look good.

 

Thanks, bama! The bean overflow system as designed uses two downward-facing elbows, and a single upward one for the emergency drain. I wasn't able to "tune" the flow and make it work as intended. Perhaps it was just my impatience, but through trial and error I upturned two drains in the overflow, and the single one left now acts as a siphon.

People hear the word siphon all the time and I don't know if I ever appreciated a true siphon until I did this. Siphon means zero air. It's just like when you use a poly-tube to do a water change. The water really flows fast.

I'm really digging the bubble free sump!! I'll say this: I'll never build another durso, hoffer gurgle-buster, or traditional stand-pipe based system again. I'm going to change my 90 over pretty soon.

More pics to come when I get lights up.

 

Very cool, I had no idea it turned into a true siphon. Now it makes sense why its so quiet and bubble free. Looking forward to future updates.