Help! and I will donate $20.00 to 3reef

tagging along, very curious on the plumbing as well considering I will be plumbing in the near future and have no clue what I am doing.

 

First off if your going with a 4-way you should run it on a closed loop.
Meaning completely separate from your overflow/return system.
You will pull water from the main tank by either plumbing something over the top. or putting another hole in the tank. that will run to the pump and 4-way. Then you would plumb each port of the 4-way to a line that returns to your tank. Again this can be PVC over the top or with hole in the tank. If you check out my build thread linked below you can see how I plumbed my 4-way

J

 

Thanks. So I guess I will need two types of plumbing? One closed loop for the flow and one to run to the sump?

 

Yup Exactly

J

 

WOW what a project this is becoming. I almost like building the setup as much as watching an established tank. But my wife does not like the $$$$$ going into it.

So if I understand this correctly from the overflow I run a pipe to my sump with a T valve so one end drains into the Sump where my skimmer is and the other into the fuge. They then dump into the return area. A pump then pushes it up to the display tank. I figure I could hook up two flex nozzles in the top rear and make a small hole at the top of the line like Tangster said to break the siphon. For the closed loop I think I will set it up with ocean motion 4 way. Two returns on each side at different elevations and 4 on the back wall at different elevations. Then I’ll setup the ocean motion to get the best flow.



How does that sound? Let me know if you see any better options.

 

Another question. How do get the pump from the sump to the display to match the water from the display to the sump?

I see everyone has t-valves but I think it would be hard to get an exact match.

 

If the pump and pipes are sized correctly then gravity and the fact that liquids always seek their own levels will take care of this problem .. It will only go out as fast as it comes in.. Gravity sucks

 

On the return line on the very top there is usually a 90 degree elbow to sent the water back to the tank if you drill a small hole on the bottom of that elbow it will always break that siphon and prevent that back flow issue they are talking about. Some people use check valves and some have a metal spring in them and with salt water will rust and fail. I drilled a small hole on that 90 and never had an issue with back flow once the siphon breaks. The whole just needs to be right below your water line in the DT

 

Thanks for all the responses. Tangster has been so kind to handle my needs over PM and email. Once I have the plans and setup done i will add it to my thread. ;D