As are we!
I hope I've been some help, but please be careful and go slowly - I'm just judging by what I can see in the photos
Update for those who might be interested!
So I finally got the tank in place and started plumbing the new tank into my fish room.... Lets just say that wasn't easy. The fish room was about 14ft bellow and 14ft to the side of where the aquarium was going to go, with a stairwell in between too boot....
Because my goal for this tank was to have all filtration in a separate room and only have lights and a few pumps for flow in the display, I had to get a bit creative!
First, Here is the finished display
I could have painted the back to hide more of the plumbing, but I intent to let it grow over with coraline algae anyways, so its a temporary sight at any rate. Running the wire for the light was surprisingly difficult, but thats how it goes..
Now to connect this system to the sump I used a Fijicube low profile overflow. The entire external box is actually inset into the wall and the tubes run through the wall, this allows the tank itself to sit flush against the wall. Now for the fun part, connecting the tank and the sump!
Shown here is the stairwell behind the tank. I had to do a bit of minor drywall removal in order to run the tubes. The studs I had to cut through are confirmed non-load bearing as well. I opted for a traditional herbie overflow with one full siphon and a damp emergency return line and then the main pump return. because of the layout of the studs, I had to run sideways before I could run straight down. Where the tubes are coming out of the wall in the picture I installed an access hatch for maintenance and thats also the back of the tanks overflow.
After dropping below the stairs, I opted to simply run the tubs along the roof of the storage closet under the stairs into the fish room. It had to round a corner and traverse some at a flat run without any slope, but I was confident the siphon part of the return could still operate with that flat spot so long as I was careful to not have any uphill spots that could trap air.
Finally after getting the return into the sump, I connected it to a gate valve and the roller mat filter and began adjusting the siphon. Unfortunately, I came across this issue that because of how much of a run this system had, when the gate was properly tuned for silence with the herbie, the siphon was unable to start on its own in the event of a power failure.
SO... I found a capacitor driven normally open ball valve and installed a T fitting in the siphon return. In the event of a power loss, this valve drives itself to full open and dumps the entire siphon into the sump. During a startup, the apex runs a sequence that monitors for the siphon forming with the electronic call valve open, once the siphon is properly formed, the ball valve is driven full closed and then the normal siphon can take over. This system is very reliable with many tests so far, However, in the event that for some reason the ball valve does jam in the closed position and dosent allow for the siphon to form, the emergency return line is still able to handle the entire water load.
So thats been my adventure so far! I now have a 40 breeder plumbed into my fish room from across the house. Its been a journey to get here and I think my wife is getting tired of me running a construction zone in the living spaces...
The only next question is... Do I turn the 180 gallon thats in the fish room into the worlds most overkill refugium for a 40gal display.... or do I simply shut it down like I was originally planning to do? I kinda like the refugium idea.
What do you guys think?
