My 140 Gallon Build

Esage · Aug 8, 2015

Jonathan G said:
Yes the overflow will stop draining to the sump once the water breaks below the teeth. That being said I used loc-line for my return and it created a siphon which will draw water back until the loc-line is exposed. That was too much water for my sump so I added a GF Wye valve in the return line. this worked but I had the valve fail several times during feeding after about 6 months. I always caught it in time but it un-nerved me that I could loose power or the return pump would fail and too much water would back siphon out. I fixed this by drilling a hole in the loc-line on each run just below the surface of the water. This breaks the siphon almost immediately.

I'm not sure exactly how much water drains back, for me I would say its less than half a gallon, whatever is in the drain and the return already that drops back down in. I'm really excited to see your build, please ask away if you have any other questions or want to see detailed pics of anything that I've done with my setup.

Thanks for all the info it's been a lot of help! Did yours come with grey PVC for plumbing? If it did was it schedule 80 PVC?

Jonathan G · Aug 8, 2015

Yes it came with schedule 80 grey PVC for the durso drain and the return up to the 90 degree elbow. I added my loc-line on to that. Also came with bulkheads for both drain and return.

Esage · Aug 8, 2015

Jonathan G said:
Yes it came with schedule 80 grey PVC for the durso drain and the return up to the 90 degree elbow. I added my loc-line on to that. Also came with bulkheads for both drain and return.

Interesting.... The bulkheads appear to be schedule 40. I have spare schedule 40 bulkheads and they look the same as the ones I received. The grey PVC seems to be a really tight fit into the bulkheads. I was going to go get some barbed bulkheads and just go tubing for the return and drain. Looks like I may need to build a new stand pipe out of scheduled 40 PVC.

Jonathan G · Aug 8, 2015

The builkheads I got with mine were super heavy duty, and the PVC they sent was a very tight fit. I ended up not even using PVC cement on the connections in the overflow, I just pushed them in and it's been fine. It has also saved me a few times cause it makes cleaning the bottom of the overflow so much easier when you can pull the pipes out. Also had a cleaner wrasse go through the fingers a few times and I never would have been able to rescue him without pulling the pipes. Here is a pic of the underside of the bulkheads and how I plumbed it. I used the braided tubing also, just used a threaded barb on the return side, and a small amount of PVC to get the tubing going the way I wanted on the drain.

Esage · Aug 9, 2015

Jonathan G said:
The builkheads I got with mine were super heavy duty, and the PVC they sent was a very tight fit. I ended up not even using PVC cement on the connections in the overflow, I just pushed them in and it's been fine. It has also saved me a few times cause it makes cleaning the bottom of the overflow so much easier when you can pull the pipes out. Also had a cleaner wrasse go through the fingers a few times and I never would have been able to rescue him without pulling the pipes. Here is a pic of the underside of the bulkheads and how I plumbed it. I used the braided tubing also, just used a threaded barb on the return side, and a small amount of PVC to get the tubing going the way I wanted on the drain.

Thanks for the pic! Those look like schedule 80 bulkheads, mine definitely came with schedule 40. I guess I'll be calling them tomorrow. I wonder if the holes drilled in the glass were for 80 or 40 bulkheads.

Esage · Aug 17, 2015

Got my tank setup this weekend.... Thank you for all your help! https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/68-gallon-half-cylinder-build.210103/

Esage · Aug 25, 2015

What are you using to clean your glass?

Jonathan G · Aug 25, 2015

Outside I just use newspaper with ro/di water. Inside I have a mag-float I use every couple days and then once a month I go in with the Tunze Care-strong with the blade on it to get rid of the corraline. I'm very careful to keep the blade vertical and just go back and forth, haven't scratched the glass yet.

Esage · Aug 25, 2015

Jonathan G said:
Outside I just use newspaper with ro/di water. Inside I have a mag-float I use every couple days and then once a month I go in with the Tunze Care-strong with the blade on it to get rid of the corraline. I'm very careful to keep the blade vertical and just go back and forth, haven't scratched the glass yet.

So, the mag-float works on the curved glass? Yeah, I made the mistake with the razor blade not being vertical and put a couple of small scratches on the curve.

Jonathan G · Aug 25, 2015

Yes I've had no issue with the mag-float, works great for everything but corraline.

Esage · Aug 24, 2016

You still have this tank up and running? Would love to see updated pics

Jonathan G · Aug 27, 2016

Yes I still have it going, I'm sort of in cruise mode right now, I don't really have any space for more coral and my fish are doing great, coming up on almost 2 years without a loss (knock on wood). Here are some quick pics I took tonight, have a little cyano that I'm dealing with right now but I started dosing peroxide twice a day and it's really dying back. I'm up to almost 110ml of calc and alk per day, I really need to start looking at something different or go in a cut coral like mad.