Help with plumbing an equipment closet.

I was going down the road to build a bigger stand to put a 75g sump/fuge under my 90g. Lots of imporvements over adding a small fuge to my existing stand/sump.

My tank sits on the wall for my stair case. On the other side is the closet under the stairs. You know, sloping room small space. Anyway... got to thinking about putting the sump/fuge in there.

-Don't need a special stand. Use the floor or cinder blocks for the 75g.
-Don't have to break down my tank to move it.
-Plenty of room for everything and a ATO and storage.
-Give me more storage under my tank for stuff.
-Won't have to worry about my fuge light being on at night sleeping.

The downside is I don't have a clue how to plumb it. I have a 90g AGA with overflow box and drilled for drain/return.

-Can/do I still use those fittings?
-What height does my sump have to be? On the floor, even, slightly less?
-I have no idea how much my overflow box can flow. Don't know how much more it can handle. I do need more to split my drain line to my sump and fuge.
-As it stands now, the bottom of my DT is only about 30" high.

Any suggestions are most welcome.

 

Hope this has helped.

 

You are a great help.

"that really doesnt matter, its a personal pref., but the higher off the ground you have it, the less head you'll have."

That is what I'm not getting. If I use the drilled drain, I run it out the bottom of the DT, through the wall then up into the sump at whatever height.

Won't I have a siphon though? What If I did make a siphon and closed the air break at the top of the tube. It would flow more right?

"If I remember correctly, a 1" drain pipe drains at 600-700gph. The plumbing will depend on if your sump and refug are in a combo unit or separated"

I noticed how the bulkhead fitting neck down to the connection. I was going to cut off the connection up to the wider part, then use a couple over that to give me bigger plumbing. I could go to 1.25" on the drain. and 1" on the return. There still would be a restriction at the BH fitting. My 9.5 is matched well with the head to my mag 7 on my skimmer. They both move about the same amount. If I could get a couple of hundred more GPM, then I can send it to the fuge. But again, I don't know if my wier at the overflow will pass that much.

I'm going to put a fuge at one end of a 75g and the skimmer at the other end and both going to the return in the middle.

 

What ever the fitting is on the bulkhead you need to stay with that diameter pipe. If you make it bigger then you loose gph with the pump because of more water volume (head) in the pipe. I have my fish room in a under the stairs closet and it works great. You also have to remember the OF will only bring back the water the return pump is putting in the display tank. So don't put a 5,000 gph pump on one OF return.

 

Also, just measured and the closet is only 36" wide, and 52" deep. That will be a tight fit with me in there. Hum.

 

Mine is 45" wide and 72" long and I have a 75g sump and 30g fuge in there plus all the other equipment. Don't need a lot of room to move around.

 

Thanks.

So how did you plumb yours from your tank to your sump?

How tall is you sump compared to your tank?

 

That wont work unless the DT is way higher than the sump. I think that you'll have a tough time getting the flow to come down from the DT only to go back up again into the sump. Remember that the flow needs to be an "even flow" (Pearl Jam) through out the draining. The longer the drain to the sump, the more of a reason to keep the sump on the floor.

I dont see the need to make the drain pipes bigger.

If you set it up that way, you will need to "T" off the drain. One going to the sump section and the other to the refug section. Remember to install ball valves. Luna

 

Bottom of the display is 3' off the ground and then the tank is 30" tall. Sump is sitting on the floor in the closet. If you watch my video I put in the 3reef video contest you can see the fish room.

 

Got it. I figured the drain is big enough, just need to PVC it. Was just worried about getting too much flow from the 9.5.

That was what I was going to do. Originally, I was going to have the drain going to the fuge lower than the sump. That way the pipe would always be full, and I would regulate with a valve. I was going to leave the sump free flowing for the rest.

If I do the closet, I will just tee and use two valves. I was more worried about balancing the two flows with valves and running the risk of closing them too much and overflowing. I thought if I left both lines straight and even, I would have a hard time regulating to the fuge.