Two overflows in the middle of my tank

Really cool we don't even care about the pipe don't we, its part of the scape. Thanks thats really encouraging. ;D

 

I don't want to rain on your parade, but I would never put either a drain or a return into a tank outside of an overflow.

Why? Bulkheads can go bad, seals can dry out, etc. I've seen setups like this go bad on two occasions. One was locally a number of years ago when I was in Florida. Another was more recently on this forum.

In one case (Florida) the seal cracked and started leaking in a 240g tank. Since I'm pretty good with mechanical stuff a local store called me to see if I had any ideas for their customer. Nothing to be done here. The entire tank had to be broken down, drained and put back together. It was a major effort and all the broken coral from tearing it down was heart breaking.

The case on 3Reef I believe the guy was tightening the bulkhead for some reason and it cracked. I didn't finish following the thread, but he likely had to do the same thing.

Overflows perform two duties:

1) Providing a skimming mechanism for the tank and a way for water to egress.

2) Isolating the bulkheads from the majority of the tank water so if they have to be swapped out you can do so without destroying the tank.

You can build a tank without, but it's like playing Russian roulette - and you never know when the trigger will get pulled and if it does whether there's a round in the chamber.

Additionally, by putting the drain down low like is depicted (and I'm assuming it will be covered with rock) there is no easy way to clean/declog it.

 

I bought some top quality, reverse thread bulkhead for like $15 each for my 240g sump. I broke one tightening it and put more than a few gallons of water onto the platform it sits on.

And no matter how strong the bulkhead is, the seals are all still rubber and can go bad.

This is a risk not worth taking to save a little interior tank space - especially in a 24" tank. Put a long 4" one across the back like the old Oceanic Tech 120s. Hardly notice it's there.

EDIT: Not to mention you have no surface skimmer action going. I don't care how strong your protein skimmer and other filtration is, without skimming action you will get a film showing up. Heck, I've got one that sits in a weird flow pattern in one of my 175s and I've got an overflow and a Bubble King 3000 that could run a system 3x my size.

 

Ok first That Picture up there is not my thank and is not going to be that way in my tank its just a picture giving the look of a drain inside A tank. So please read the thread carefully ,The plan show the tank out of its stand so we can see inside the drains are 2" wide and will skim the surface and will be surrounded by rock yes but with a removable strainer easy to access for cleaning. i will be mindfull and take care of my tank. Its not for ever and routine check and schedule are part of maintenance. As for the hole and look this is a crude schematic but the general thinking of it all. As for the C2C never again . Visited several Europein tanks( they're always 10 years ahead of us usually; all overflows like that, no cumbersome over the top plumbing and they have compare to us neat and clean set ups, and their waters are crystal..... As for top Quality Schedule 80 bulkhead are $ 63 a piece, some can be $ 41 but it up there. You get what you pay. My tank is $2 000 predrill 1/2" thick the stand is reenforced steel almost $ 2500 so you get breakage for cheap stuff and if you don't spend the money where and when it counts. Quality bulkhead for $ 15.....thei'rs your leakage. Cracking is also the result of overturning the bulkhead into place and weakening the glass when installing lots of reason for these occurance one examples. If they where happening all the time we wouldn't see that kind of set up all over guys. I don't find any of your argument convincing at all. Sorry i haven't seen any thread to support your doomsday predictions, lol happy reefing.

 

I'd love to see a solid depiction of this layout. I'm all about saving space, and the thought of hiding the drain pipes in the rock work is something I initially brainstormed for my 180. The big thing that held me back, after several months of careful search, was the build up of NPS critters growing and clogging up my pipes. (Of course this can happen with any pipe system) I wanted to keep as few 90o angles as I could, so a simple design was the drive for my system. I know you're not putting the return lines in the rock, so I imagine a pillar of sorts covering the drain up to the top. If you're hiring a vendor to build this, I'm sure he's already well versed in the action of reverse pressure. A well placed "mountain" would look pretty cool. As for the drain, I look forward to seeing the outcome. Following along.

 

Thanks , look at this picture those are my sculpture i made for my previous tank. Now i'll be doing something a bit less invasive . If you look at the first picture up above with the low drain pipe, thats not mine by the way. But the piping there are a closed loop return lines, i'm doing those like that with 3-4 exit accelerator at each end. Now those pipes will have dry rock like the picture here and foam as well but much less bulkier. The two Drain pipes will be incorporated in this. Now the second picture show the back wall that we loose anyway to coraline. And instead of adding rock infront of the tank and taking swimming space for the fish i'll take an inch of the back wall with dryrock. like that. Its actually ceramic.

 

Generally when someone asks for advice and then someone with 35 years of experience gives it, they either take that advice or say "thanks, but I'll try it anyway."

Getting berated for telling you about two setups similar to yours that failed is not appreciated. Don't expect any advice from me in the future.

EDIT: Here's the non-existent thread I referenced. Good day.

 

I think there's was just some basic misunderstanding on both side you though that the picture was of my tank when it was not and i can understand your remarks according to that picture . I wouldn't want a drain pipe that low in my tank with sand so close plus the problem of cleaning would be terrible yes. so your objections where right on about that. That being said i had said that the plan was different than the picture shown. I appologise for the remarks.

One clarification also the tank will be only 3 glass panel the back wall and bottom wont be starfire glass so the risk of breaking and leakage is even more reduced because of this.

 

I plan to aquascape my herbie 2" pipe this way, it will have to blend with my acceleration loop sculptures .The bottom will be closed of course.



This is another way of doing Herbie, with a space between the 2"pipe and the emergency 1.25" pipe, the flow can circulate between the two.

 

Hummm... are you going to have two like this? What is the flow rate of a 2" pipe with a 1.25" pipe inside? The tee will not need to be a 2" line coming off, only as much as the prior question can flow. A 2" line and valve is pretty big and takes up space.

If you are going to have two drains, and toy want to do it this way, then the emergency will be the same height as the normal so it can provide some regulation. You just do not want a lot going down the emergency or eventually it will make noise and you loose emergency capacity.

Oh ya... duh... if you are going to have tow Herbie drains... there is no way to do each other individually.. you HAVE to tie the two drains together, otherwise they fight each other. Many have tried, many have failed.

So you could come out of the tee with 2" and tie the two together and then have a 2" regulation valve... as long as you know the 2" line can flow more water than the two drains of 2" line with a 1.25" pipe inside.