Show me your plumbing!!

Awww, get your mind out of the gutter! I'm thinking of replumbing my tank and want to see what everyone else has done. Post your pics with a brief description please.

 

no one to post pics?

 

Come on someone wants to show us all this! I would show mine but it is just a box of bulkheads and loc-lines.

 

this is mine. It is very basic line in, line out.

 

This is one of my 2 overflow boxes.




You can see the thick tube going down to the sump. I switched from PVC to tubing because it's a lot more manageable and I find that the "ride down" is smoother, flows better and it really cuts down on the return pumps getting air bubbles that in turn make it into the display.




Thick tubes going down, thin tubes going back up.




Kind of hard to see but you can see where one of the thick tubes ends up, on the complete other side of the sump from the return pumps. Again, the tube just curves around. No PVC to cut and piece together. It's really the way to go.




Return pump...enough said.




Another shot of the thick tube coming down, thin tube going up.




This is how my refugium comes into play. I have it sitting on books (LoL) so it's a bit elevated from the sump. An overflow goes into the sump, the blue box, and a third return pump goes back in, the black tube.



And my skimmer just sits in the sump, as do my heaters.

 

mine is in my build thread i dont wanna go relink them cause im tired

 

Here's mine:

The sump/fuge. Comes in from right and left sides from my overflow with 2 outputs.


Labeled on both sides for easy reference, yeah I'm a geek, but its much easier knowing what is what!



Line coming into the fuge area:


Line coming down to the LR rubble/skimmer/phos reactor area. Its a spray bar I made that lays across white filter to pickup the big stuff.


My return in the center, and auto top off unit.


Return line w/valve and behind it is the line going to the fuge using 45's instead of 90 degree elbows.


The 2 lines coming out of the overflow.


The overflow, siphon pump on top of a lid I made to reduce the gurggling. and the 2 return pipes on each end.


One of the returns with holes drilled to break the return siphon in the "power out" scenario.


And the return splitting into 2 lines and into each side of the tank.


I like this method, which I learned from Melv's reef. I can control the flow through both sides. So I can keep the fuge rate a bit slower as recommended.

Hope this helps!

 

Here is some of my plumbing for my 300 gal.
OVER FLOW BOX IN CENTER BACK OF TANK LEADING TO MACH. FILTER AND TO CONVERTED TETRA POND TRICKLE FILTER TO SUMP SIDE VIEW REAR VIEW.

 

JBL: I have that same type of stand for my 36 bowfront, and i just thought i should tell you that i'm stealing your idea of putting the surge protectors on the doors!

 

Ok, I like these type of threads. I'll share my setup.

You will notice the tank is very close to the wall it's up against. I had to make one of these DIY overflows which works very nice.

At first I made it out of 1/2in. pvc, but ran into some design and performance problems. My current overflow is the same type of overflow but I used 3/4in pvc and it has been working great for 2 yrs +. I learned to make it here on 3reef. Here's the link.. Nice Cheap DIY Overflow

Here is the same overflow hanging on the back of the DT.


At a different angle you can see the intake of the overflow to the left of the Loc-Line.


This is the return outlet to the DT


Here is what the setup looks likefrom the top of the aquarium.


Here is where it might get a little confusing. The intake and return to and from the sump/refugium.

Hopefully the labels help you understand the flow of the water into the sump, to the chiller, and back to the DT. I'll explain a little anyways.

1. From the DT,the water enters the sump.
2. The water is pumped by an in-sump Mag-Drive 7.
3. The water reaches a T where I can control the amount of flow to the Chiller and the DT by adjusting the double valves.
4. The water that goes to the chiller goes through it and back to the sump.
5. The rest of the water goes to the DT.
6. I can completely shut off water to the DT using the valve on the left, and the one on the right is used to adjust the amount of water the goes to the DT.
7. I have it set to about 60-40. 60% goes to the chiller, and 40% to the DT. I can, however, adjust to my preference

The rest of the plumbing you can't see is the 2 pumps (one on each side) in the back compartment of the Aquapod that are hooked up to a wavemaker. I have pvc running up, then I attached Loc-Line over the wall and into the DT.
I hope you enjoy, and I hope the pictures came out good..