Maintenance after many years of running.

It's been 11 years my tank has been up and running. I bought a Little Giant 4MDQX-SC and it has been running non stop since then. Great pump and never had issues with it. However, since it's been 11 years my tank and it's filtration has changed over and over. I want to make this the final change. I lost a lot of equipment because of working out of town the last few years. Either I forgot to turn on the ATO or fish jumped over into the drain side and caused issues that way etc... I lost my UV light, Skimmer Pump, Pump to the Chiller. I forget what else over the years. I order a Reef Flo Dart and some Loc Line. I have a 55G in the garage I plan on turning into a sump/fuge I need Ideas. Take a look at the video and help me out with any ides you all may have. I will keep you updated. I want to take the Little Giant and use it in place of power heads. I want to get a SCWD and have pipes on both sides with 4 outlets two high two low with the SCWD working as a wave maker. I will use a piece of Well Point for the inlet to the pump.
http://youtu.be/vclPv3BKhyw

 

uummm... vid says private....

 

LOL I'll fix that. It was set to private my bad!

 

We use the same LG pump as the main on our 48" 100 gal, with an Iwaki MD-40 as the closed-loop. My only complaint with the 4MDQX-SC is that it's quite a bit lounder than the 3MDQX-SC we use on our 60 gal.

You're going to LOVE running a CL as opposed to PHs...it's a great way to go. I love SCWDs, and have them on several setups, either on the CL return or the main return.

Take a look at some of our builds:

This is the schematic I gave to our tankmaker for our 210 peninsula:



For this tank, I used a Pan World PS-200 for the main return, with a SCWD to alternate the flow. The CL returns are in the bottom, and is driven by a RF Dart thru a Ocean's Motions 4-way.

Here's our 100 gal:

Schematic of mains (the "Y" is a SCWD):



Here are some pix of the setup:



back of tank, showing external overflow:



Plumbing (corrugated drain lines omitted for clarity):



Anyhow, those are a couple of our builds...HTH

 

I appreciate the feed back thank you. I would like to do something like the second image. However, I won't be able to drill the tank so I have another idea. Something to this effect. It may take a bit to get all the pieces before I get it all together. I got some of them so far.

 

I have a 55 gallon to turn into a sump. Do I need to get a hole drilled 59mm to match the 2" inlet of the pump?

 

For a std. 2" BH, most mfrs quote a 2 7/8" hole, but it can be less as long as the BH fits thru it.

 

I will look around and see who can drill a whole that big for me. I only have a small bit. Or maybe i'll buy a bit i seen they are only 20 bucks. Not sure how much is charged to drill a tank.

 

After the AC and water heater broke much $$ outta pocket I'm back to this finally. I have the 55 gallon ready for new silicone, the bulkhead and drill bit are here. Not done with that yet. This weekend I changed things around I will post pics later. Had a few questions.

1. Is Spa Flex and Car Flex the same thing one grey one white? I have endless supply of car flex at work I can use to recoop some $$.

2. on a chiller it's marked in and out on the fittings for the water entering the unit. Does it really matter the direction? I hooked it up backwards yesterday and need to know if I should change it.

 

I don't think it really matters...IME, some chillers are marked, and some are not. As long as the water enters and exits the heat exchanger coils, it should work. Then again, it should be easy to simply swap the lines...unless you used rigid PVC, it should be easy.

I can't help you with the spa vs. car flex...altho if you were local to me, I have an entire roll of 1" spa flex sitting around that I could hook you up with. I never used it, and likely never will.