CJ's New 90Gal Setup

It's looking great. Wow, I bet you are excited.

You don't need a lot of GPH, but you should try to maximize flow. The PVC work is great, but consider finishing it all the way to the tank. You are so close. Barbed tube fittings are very restrictive on iside diameter. Regular PVC would be much better. 1" for drain and 3/4" for return. I used 1.5" for my drain and 1" for return. The piping is oversizes. The bulkheads are the only restriction. I didn't see what bulk heads you have, but it those are barbed, then very small. Threaded bulkheads are much bigger.

Sorry to join so late. Have you ever considered doing a Herbie... zero bubbles and silent.

Also... what water level does your skimmer need. The sump/fuge looks great, but the baffle for the skimmer looks shallow. You can always put the skimmer on a stand. The return section level looks shallow to.... but obviously you need room for back flow. I realize you have a checkvalve, but if it ever does not hold, you still need room.

Minor critiques... You are doing a very good, well thought out job. It's going to run great when you get it all going.

 

Hello Powerman, glad you joined in. I hear ya, I did use 1in on the drain & return, but the return does get reduced to 3/4 when going through the floor and connecting onto the tank. The drain barbed connection to my tank before the 1st ball valve is 1 1/4 ID hose. Matter of fact I had to heat up the hose with boiling water to get it over the barbs. So I'm not getting that bad of a restriction.

But I do appreciate the advice, more than one head is better than one. Not to mention this is my 1st design & setup with a sump/refuge. I have already learned a lot from trial & error.

Please anymore advice would be great.

Thanks Again!!

 

I did notice that when I cut back the flow from my drain, the overflow was a lot less noiser. The down fall, the ball valve under the tank was getting hit with the falling water cause water noise under the stand.

My solution, install a ball valve in the fish room.

 

I fixed the water rapids problem. I just should of gone with my 1st original design that I though of over a year ago. It works great & I don't even need to split the drain into two areas. As you can see, very little to no bubbles in my middle chamber.

 

Wow, looks great, John.
Just found this thread, glad I did. You've put a ton of work into this build. Keep it up. Can't wait to see the finished product.

 

Well John, what you have done is made half a Herbie, but you left out the safety half.

Restricting a drain is a bad idea. What the Herbie does is put a gate valve in the drain line to regulate the water level above the drain line to keep out air and the following noise and bubbles.

The other part of the Herbie is to convert the return line bulk head to an emergency drain so that if the restricted main drain is not regulated properly or gets a little clogged it does not overflow the tank. After that the return lines are plumbed over the back of the tank.

Forgetting a Herbie overflow for a minute... you really should reconsider restricting your drain.

And nice work on the bigger barbs. Din't see that from the pic.

 

Thank you.. Glad you like the work & look forward to your comments & ideas.

 

Ok, so we'll call this design the CJ. lol... I'm still playing around to minimize the restriction to almost non if possible. I have thought of that already my friend. ;D They don't call me computerjohn for nothing.. I have sensors & switches that I'm going to incorporate into my overflow & into my sump.

Any unacceptable water rise or fall will trigger an alarm that will shutdown my return pump. This will still allow my powerheads to work in my display tank & will trigger a small pump in my sump to circulate that water. The system will contact myself & trigger a zone in my home alarm system, again contacting me. Believe me the LAST thing I need is a water overflow onto my new hardwood floors!!

I'm bringing my tank into the modern era. Hey we have the technology, why not use it to make our lives easier. ;D

On the second note. Gate vs ball valves, I know you get a lot getter control from a gate, but due to it's design won't it constrict more??

 

Looking good John but with such a small return section in your sump I hope you have plans for a ATO since you will prolly evaporate what is in there pretty fast.

 

Thank you.. Yeah, that was due to the skimmer's requirements. To answer your question, yes I will have an ATO system & some automation to make my life a lot easier.