Marty's 180g [My Elusive Shrimp]

I guess I'm not sure I understand the downsides?

 

I Think FatBastad is saying that there is a possibility of your drains getting clogged after time causing your tank to over flow because of not enough water getting to the sump fast enough. I had a fish jump over once and get caught in the drain and that's exactly what happened to me. I guess that's what he is trying to say.

 

Seems to be working, guess I'll have to watch it.

 

Correct.

If getting pre skimmed water to the fuge was the only way to have a successful fuge, the skimmer would be all you would need to nutrient removal then and a fuge would be moot.

I see your plumbing to it is 1/2" and I'm sure if you closed that valve, the bit of water you're diverting isn't going to flood your tank but...

I'm simply saying, valves on drains are a no no 99+% of the time.

 

I have 2 half inch line off a 1" drain, so I hope that would be ok. :/ Thanks for the heads up I'll keep an eye on this.

 

Ahh, (I'm slow) the drain valve was just used to knock down the spray bar flow just a touch. I will never have any reason to close it unless my pumps are off.

 

After reviewing your plumbing pic again in more detail, I'm going to give you the red light.

A 1" open drain on the left side and a 1" drain reduced to 2 x 1/2" AND valved on the right does not pass FatBastads sump inspection.

Sorry Marty.
I'm only giving you constructive criticism on this because you're build is an A+.
I will not watch it fail due to an overflow issue.

(In the unlikely event that you get a clog or semi clog on the left, your reduced plumbing on the right is going to have trouble going into a full siphon mode AND if it did, it will be capable of much, MUCH less than a POSSIBLE 1" full siphon due to the 1/2" plumbing schema.)

 

I think I agree with FatBastad. What I did on my 125 was run one 1 1/4" drain to the 'fuge inlet, the other I tee'd and kept one side 3/4" with a valve over to my skimmer section, and the other kept it full size 1 1/4" over to the 'fuge inlet. So even if the smaller 3/4" line was ever plugged, I still have both full size lines ready to go.

 

Ok, guys. You've blazed the trails before I have so I am going to come up with a fix for this. Thanks for the advice and helpful criticism. This is what it's all about.

 

So I had to resolve an issue with my auto top-off over the weekend. Since my reservoir is mounted high above my tank the line would keep siphoning in water when the pump shut off. To fix this I broke the line above the water line on my reservoir. It dumps into an acrylic tube then runs down into the tank from there. I used a binder clip to regulate flow to keep it low in the acrylic tube. Works amazingly well.