125g Build

Looks awesome!

 

I have been working on a few different designs for stand pipes for the megaflows....

Testing: during water testing for my new system, this stand pipe was by far the quietest and highest flowing. It was also more stable and handled water level changes better than the other two designs that I tested. I had read that the larger pipe has something to do with these abilities and I must agree. Also, the larger and submerged intake seems to make this stand pipe completely quiet.

 

This one I want to see if the 3 drains, one full siphon pipe (need to cut it down), one durso, and a third durso with air will be quiet, noisy, or not work at all. I'm also going to make one with just 2 branches.



NOTE: I decided not to test this monstrosity. It is a good idea gone bad.

 

I also made a regular durso with a john guest connector that will have tubing and a valve.



NOTE: during the water testing for the plumbing, this basic Durso style stand pipe was the loudest of the three types that I tested.

 

Stand pipes tested!

I tested the system tonight with water for the first time. I have some comments to share, but in this post I am going to cover the stand pipes. I built 4 different designs for stand pipes that would fit in my megaflows without drilling the tank. I only tested 3. The one that I didn't test I call the candlestick. It would work, but it was too big and would probably be very loud and hard to control flow.

(1) By far the best design (herbie style?) used 1.5" schedule 40 pipe, a slip repair joint, large slots cut into the top of the pipe for draining, and a 90d slip quick fitting and valve. I don't know if this design (exact) is out there or not. I know that I got the idea from somewhere at some point but I can't remember the source. You can figure out how to make your own from the pictures in this thread. The best part of this design is that it is height adjustable. I was able to keep the water line to within 3" of the top of the megaflow dam. This design is completely silent. There is no noise from the air inlet either.



(2) The next design consists of a standard Durso head with a second angled drain below it. I put a reducer on the second drain to drop it from 3/4" to 1/2" pipe. This design actually works very well. It does not flow as well as the #1 design above. It is nearly quiet. If you put your ear to it, you can hear the water draining inside the pipe. I doubt you could hear this pipe from more than 1 foot away. I like this design because it is much easier to build and uses less materials so it is cheaper. There is a very slight noise from the air inlet in this design.




(3) The standard Durso design tested poorly. The flow was noticeably less than the other two designs. The megaflow was actually backing up compared to the other test pipes. This pipe was also loud. It was loud enough to hear it from a few feet away. The air inlet also makes a horrible high pitched noise if not adjusted correctly. Even when adjusted, you can still hear the air rushing into the air inlet. When adjusted, this stand pipe worked, and it is certainly the cheapest to build.

 

125G water / plumbing testing

I was able to wrap up all the plumbing today after one more trip to HD. There were no leaks. I hope not, because I've been using PVC pipe for many years and I'd be embarrassed if I had a leak.

The skimmer was disappointing. It is making bubbles, but they are huge! I am not sure if it is because it is not adjusted properly, or needs to break in first. I suspect that because of my choice to not glue the venturi to the pump may be affecting bubble production? Or the venturi is too close to the pump impeller? Dunno. I am going to play with it more. ALSO, the sicce pump that came with the skimmer is ridiculously loud. It is louder than my eHeim 1262. I am going to have to re-design this skimmer.


Ahh the noise. I knew my eHeim pump was pretty loud. I had it hooked up to my salt water mixing station prior to its move to my sump. It would vibrate the entire damn house it seems. I could hear / feel the vibration from my office next to the garage (attached). I could also always tell that I left the mixer running when I went to bed. Is that bad? It was sitting on an inch of thick foam too! Now that it is in my sump directly on the glass, plastic, and wood it is ludicrous! How do you guys deal with the vibration and noise? There is virtually no noise come from the top of the tank. And what does is pleasant water sounds. I had originally planned on using 2 Mag 9.5's for return pumps. I think I'm going to tear apart the return system tomorrow and convert it so that I can switch out between the different pumps and test for flow and noise.


Did I mention flow yet? I had imagined that I was going to be able to run two return heads on each megaflow. NOT!!! The eHeim 1262 was barely pushing a trickle when I had a branch and 4 heads on it. I know my plumbing isn't the most efficient but....wow it sucked with 4 heads. So, I took off two of them and used only the 2 jet heads. It is now "OK" but not what I was expecting. I want decent flow out of the return heads since I can only afford one ecotech MP40 for now. This is motivating me to break up the one into two return system. Tomorrow I am going to tear it apart and switch it to use two pumps. Then I'll test for flow, noise and vibration between the Mag 9.5 and eHeim 1262 pumps. If I can get better flow using two Mag 9.5s then I'll go that route. I wanted two originally for a bit of redundancy in case of a pump failure anyway. I am not worried about adding heat to the water. I can use a smaller heater or a fan. I never have problems with temp on my current usa tank anyway and it is smaller.

 

Power!

See this pretty white switch?


It controls 6 of the outlets on this...wirelessly! I am going to use it to turn all of my pumps off for maintenance tasks.

 

Random pics from testing:

 

I figured out the noise problem on the skimmer. I was going to use a maxijet 1200 to feed the skimmer. I took it off and did a direct tap from the drain. I also stole a tupperware container from the kitchen and raised it three inches. It is much quieter now.