yet another 90Gal build

Hey, that design looks familiar.. lol.. Looking good, but a word of advise..

UNIONS are your friend! I used flexiable PVC in all my plumbing (except in some pieces).

1. ALL SS clamps will rust over time & are prone to leak, especially with pressure.

2. Each barb fitting is a restiction. You want to minimize this as much as possible.

3. Install unions where service many be required, if something fails & it will you want to be able to get it out & in as soon as possble.

4. No 90 degrees at the pump or anywhere else is it can be avoided, again unwanted restrictions.

5. Don't use clear plumbing, algae will form inside the tubing.

6. Use a one way check valve on the return.

7. Install ball valves on both sides of the pump & at the tank drain & return. This will allow to shut off water for servicing & fine tuning water flow. DO NOT adjust the ball valve from sump to pump, you will smoke the pump! This is just for servicing.

8. If using flexible PVC aka SpaFlex, do now use PVC primper on it & you must use special PVC glue. Home Depot or Lowes does NOT sell it! I don't remember the name, but it is detailed on my 90gal thread http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off-your-fish-tanks/cjs-new-90gal-setup-57820.html.

9. Not now, but save your pennies & pickup a backup return pump.. You never know when it may fail.. I scored both of mine barely used at $100.00 each, the sell for $310.00 each!

10. Finally, just take you time. I know it's hard, BELIEVE ME!! Just try to invision making your life easier when maintenance is required or trouble should come.

Setup looks good! I have invested a lot of time, money & research into my setup. Just trying you save you some unwanted expense & headache..

 

Also, I was going to mount my sump in this manner, but I realized that to service the impeller would be impossible being like this. So, I flipped the sump with the pump of the left.. I didn't want to redrill the tank. Just food for thought.. If you have any questions, just ask away!

 

I disagree with the check valve. There is really no reason for it since they fail over time or if a piece of debris gets in it. If you use a check valve you are planning for a disaster.

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+1 on the unions use them wherever you can.

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How do you figure? My returns are underwater in my 90gal. Water will flow back into my sump if power fails. Of course until it catches air, but by that time I'll have an overflow in my fish room. Also, my check valve is heavy duty, clear, & with unions of both sides. So it take me 5min to take it out & replace it. I then clean the used one, dry it & put it away for the next service clean.. I service it twice a year.. It's known as a True Union Swing Check Valve.

 

The way I have my system set up is so that when the power shuts off I have enough room left in my sump for it to drain the DT until it gets air from my return lines. (some people drill siphon breaks in the return lines to stop the flow, and some like me just have the return barley under the water.) The problem with a check valve is that even when it is cleaned you still have that chance of a grain of sand or some small piece of debris getting into the flap of the swing valve.

So lets say you have your check valve all cleaned and ready to go before your vacation. You leave and have a safe piece of mind, but some how the power goes off, then your tang poops or a snail travels down your return or a grain of sand gets in the flap of the check valve. Now you have a problem if the power is not turned back on very soon you will have a slow drain of you DT until you get air in your return line.

I am not saying it will fail, it just will suck if it does.

 

I had a decent check valve before, but this time with the "Pre-drilled over flow tanks" it is pretty easy to setup w/o worrying about flooded floors (you just fill up the tank till it over flows, once that stops, fill the sump...voila', the "system" is at capacity in the "off" state)

...yeah all I got was the metal clamps, none of the LFS have the plastic ones...anyone know a source?

..
well thats because I totally and shamlessly "back engineered it" from this very site!!!
I'm not proud, but I am lazy !!!

...anyway, the tanks is running now...I'm gonna post pics in a few here

 

Again, I hope all this mundane detail doesn't take away from the thread too much...I'm sorta chronicaling the thing as I go along

here is the tank & Stand ... hope these lrg pics ain't eating too much bandwidth



...this project is kinda getting into some cost over-runs, but the potential for shock takes a big increase with a reef tanks...esp. with that sump spashing water, all the submerged pumps, et et...I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been shocked before ...so this plug has gotta go...



out with the old, in with the new (GFI)



...and I'm not done with the mundane safety stuff yet...I've seen a few pictures of other peoples sumps....sometimes I wonder how they are still alive ;D ...so anyway, rather than have like 6 power strips under this thing I got one big mutha..at most, in the future I'll bank a couple of smaller "Digital Aquatics" power strips off of this



*note the peg board, yeah more modifications........thats a "peacekeeper" ...it not only provides somewhere to hang equipment, but protects "her" wall from salt damage

 

...and just more handiwork...I made & added a platform for my top off tank




, a spice rack for meds & test kits,


and because the powerstrip terminated too close to the return line bulkhead, I simply took that 4ft long powerstrip and actually cut it with my choop saw (yeah I opened it up, it could be simply cut off and still function safley) ...I then routed the return line under the power strip ....

 

...for a 4ft tank there is only 47" under the cabinet...not much room for CO2 bottle, external pump, electrical stuff, top-off tanks, et et...
heck the sump being a 20L accounts for 30" of that 47".... getting things tucked away and accessible, yet "safe" was kinda tricky...

I like the aformentioned idea of using "unions" but how to incorporate them with a 12" long little giant pump is going to be hard...as it was, I had to turn it and feed it from the sump using an elbow...not an idea I like at all since "el's" can clog easier...

here is a better shot of what I'm up against


...and another tricky manuever is with using a union is the pumps inlet must be aligned relatively straight on with the union, or else you put too much strain on the glass...but the pro's out weigh the cons and I'm gonna tear the thing down to try it....

....and another thing I gotta navigate around is the CO2 bottle...for one thing "she" ain't gonna tolerate looking at it outside the cabinet, nor am I gonna do another reef long term w/o automated calcium.... I'll drip kalkwasser for the time being, but I really want an SPS tank

here is the under cabinet with everything fitted except the H2O top off bottle



Again, the convienence of a union and shut off valves intrigue me enought to re-design this whole thing again...my last tank was a 125G and I do remember using a union, but no shut off ...maybe I could go vertical?

anyway, here is the sump running...note I've added a fluidized bed filter for future bio-pellets ...no clue where I'm gonna put my calcium reactor yet...maybe the DSB & cheato have to go?



...and here is the tanks running...of course its a cloudy mess