How would you plumb this?

[Aaron75]

I bought a custom waterbox 2nd hand that didn't include the plumbing. How would you guys go about plumbing this? It's a 130g display

 

[Aaron75]

Bump

 

[Aaron75]

Hoping to catch the morning crew, bump again

 

[Freenow54]

I know what I would do but not giving any advice since I have never seen one. Only one piece of information. Plumb it so it is anti siphon meaning if power gees out or you shut off the power to the return pump the tank will not drain it is accomplished by using a pipe with an elbow on top with a hole drilled into the top of the elbow.

 

[UncommonSense]

Looks like you’re set up to have two return plumbing bulkheads through the overflow box, into tank… these would typically have ~6” of loc line going into the tank, and a nozzle off each.

The holes in the bottom of the box are for a Herbie drain system, plus return!

Your return plumbing bulkheads through the 1..25” hole in the bottom of the tank, tees to both 1.25” bulkheads through overflow into tank.

Your two drains bulkhead through the two 1.5” holes in the bottom of the tank

Looks like you can only get 1/2” return, and a 3/4” drain (X2) into those holes, if you use BRS brand ABS bulkheads…

 

[UncommonSense]

I know what I would do but not giving any advice since I have never seen one. Only one piece of information. Plumb it so it is anti siphon meaning if power gees out or you shut off the power to the return pump the tank will not drain it is accomplished by using a pipe with an elbow on top with a hole drilled into the top of the elbow.

The hole drilled is usually done in the loc-line inside the tank, allowing it to be just below the water line, keeping it from acting like a fountain!

I don’t like trusting just a check valve for anti-siphon purposes… critters have a way of clogging them up/making them fail open!

 

[Freenow54]

The hole drilled is usually done in the loc-line inside the tank, allowing it to be just below the water line, keeping it from acting like a fountain!

I don’t like trusting just a check valve for anti-siphon purposes… critters have a way of clogging them up/making them fail open!

Using your direction of flow the hole would be on the supply to the sump. That is why I did not give any details . I have heard it many times. What is a Herbie set up

 

[Aaron75]

Looks like you’re set up to have two return plumbing bulkheads through the overflow box, into tank… these would typically have ~6” of loc line going into the tank, and a nozzle off each.

The holes in the bottom of the box are for a Herbie drain system, plus return!

Your return plumbing bulkheads through the 1..25” hole in the bottom of the tank, tees to both 1.25” bulkheads through overflow into tank.

Your two drains bulkhead through the two 1.5” holes in the bottom of the tank

Looks like you can only get 1/2” return, and a 3/4” drain (X2) into those holes, if you use BRS brand ABS bulkheads…

Ok so I was able to piece that together, that seems like awfully undersized lines no? Can a 1/2" inch pipe handle 1200gph turnover? If I used waterbox fittings I believe it would be dn32 and dn25 which adapts to 1.25" and 1" respectively.

 

[Freenow54]

Here I go PVC is measured ID

 

[Aaron75]

Here I go PVC is measured ID

Ok?

 

[UncommonSense]

Using your direction of flow the hole would be on the supply to the sump. That is why I did not give any details . I have heard it many times. What is a Herbie set up

To clarify; the pressurized plumbing coming from the pump in your sump, and feeding your display is called the “return” side of your plumbing!

The loc line is on the return side of plumbing, attached to the bulkheads that go through the grated face of the overflow box, extending out into the tank. These segments of loc line allow you to direct your return pump’s flow around the display tank as desired.

Because the nozzles on these lengths of loc line are underwater; they will start to suck water back out of the tank, into the sump if your return pump ever turns off. Siphoning until they finally suck in some air.

The small hole is typically drilled somewhere on the loc line inside the display tank. Anti-siphon devices of various descriptions can be used too.

For further clarification; the return side plumbing will constantly be filling the display tank… once water in the display reaches a set height; it will overflow through the grating you can see between the return bulkheads, and drain from the overflow box down to the sump… this keeps the display constantly at a fixed water height, with only the return pump chamber of the sump changing in water height!

The three most common methods of draining water from a display tank to a sump are all named after the forum usernames of their inventors… there are one, two, and three stage drain systems. Referred to as Duroso, Herbie, and Bean Animal respectively.

In your case with two drain holes; the dual drain “herbie” design is appropriate! — this consists of two “standpipes” (length of PVC pipe sticking straight up inside the overflow box which terminates at a desired height within the box). One standpipe is usually a few inches taller than the other. The two standpipes are referred of as “primary”, and “secondary”.

The “primary” standpipe is the shorter of the two. It has a (specifically gate style) valve installed inline on the primary drain plumbing downstream of the overflow box. This gate valve is partially closed off to restrict the primary drain’s flow rate, and prevent it from making noisy slurping noises as it sucks air.

The secondary drain is there to accept a trickle of water flow once the primary drain is restricted via gate valve, and water flow rises in the overflow box, just a few inches to reach the entrance to the secondary standpipe.

The system in this configuration is near-silent in operation… no slurping and gurgling noises like a toilet constantly flushing!

In addition, the secondary pipe is accepting almost no water during normal operating conditions, and is prepared for emergency duty if the primary drain ever does clog with a large chunk of something flowing into it!

 

[UncommonSense]

Ok so I was able to piece that together, that seems like awfully undersized lines no? Can a 1/2" inch pipe handle 1200gph turnover? If I used waterbox fittings I believe it would be dn32 and dn25 which adapts to 1.25" and 1" respectively.

I was unclear on tank and desired return plumbing follow rates!

In this case; you might want to consider sneaking the plumbing up behind the tank, physically outside the tank for your return plumbing!

This gives you all three holes in the bottom of the tank to use as drains… a “bean animal” type system… exactly the same as the “herbie” two stage drain, except that it adds a third, tallest standpipe which never accepts water during system operation unless there’s a massive problem and your primary/secondary drains both fully clog up!

This is the most redundant type of commonly used overflow; least likely to flood the house!

I think you’ll need to do some homework to find 3/4”, and 1” bulkheads that are relatively thin wall to fit those drilled holes, or possibly a slightly reduced pump size/flow rate/valve the return flow down?

 

[UncommonSense]

Ok?

PVC pipe is measured by ID, yes! Tubing is typically measured by OD…

1.25” is a bit oddball as far as plumbing parts go these days (most systems use 1”, or 1.5” it seems).

1” hard plumbing can happily push 1,200gph in the short plumbing runs we do for aquariums!

 

[twentyleagues]

@UncommonSense pretty much spot on. I dont think 1/2 would be capable of 1200gph nor would 3/4" safely drain it.

 

[mrpontiac80]

Unless you want to go custom, can you get ahold of Waterbox customer service and buy their plumbing to fit that tank? The pics are from an infinia reef model but the pipe size looks the same. I’m sure so long as the model/ serial number is still in place on the tank they could find it.

 

[Freenow54]

To clarify; the pressurized plumbing coming from the pump in your sump, and feeding your display is called the “return” side of your plumbing!

The loc line is on the return side of plumbing, attached to the bulkheads that go through the grated face of the overflow box, extending out into the tank. These segments of loc line allow you to direct your return pump’s flow around the display tank as desired.

Because the nozzles on these lengths of loc line are underwater; they will start to suck water back out of the tank, into the sump if your return pump ever turns off. Siphoning until they finally suck in some air.

The small hole is typically drilled somewhere on the loc line inside the display tank. Anti-siphon devices of various descriptions can be used too.

For further clarification; the return side plumbing will constantly be filling the display tank… once water in the display reaches a set height; it will overflow through the grating you can see between the return bulkheads, and drain from the overflow box down to the sump… this keeps the display constantly at a fixed water height, with only the return pump chamber of the sump changing in water height!

The three most common methods of draining water from a display tank to a sump are all named after the forum usernames of their inventors… there are one, two, and three stage drain systems. Referred to as Duroso, Herbie, and Bean Animal respectively.

In your case with two drain holes; the dual drain “herbie” design is appropriate! — this consists of two “standpipes” (length of PVC pipe sticking straight up inside the overflow box which terminates at a desired height within the box). One standpipe is usually a few inches taller than the other. The two standpipes are referred of as “primary”, and “secondary”.

The “primary” standpipe is the shorter of the two. It has a (specifically gate style) valve installed inline on the primary drain plumbing downstream of the overflow box. This gate valve is partially closed off to restrict the primary drain’s flow rate, and prevent it from making noisy slurping noises as it sucks air.

The secondary drain is there to accept a trickle of water flow once the primary drain is restricted via gate valve, and water flow rises in the overflow box, just a few inches to reach the entrance to the secondary standpipe.

The system in this configuration is near-silent in operation… no slurping and gurgling noises like a toilet constantly flushing!

In addition, the secondary pipe is accepting almost no water during normal operating conditions, and is prepared for emergency duty if the primary drain ever does clog with a large chunk of something flowing into it!

So I was in HVAC And Using the furnace as reference the supply is from the furnace to the house. IE if everything equal the sump to the display is the supply line same as blower in furnace. The return is back to the furnace from the home.

 

[Aaron75]

Unless you want to go custom, can you get ahold of Waterbox customer service and buy their plumbing to fit that tank? The pics are from an infinia reef model but the pipe size looks the same. I’m sure so long as the model/ serial number is still in place on the tank they could find it.

I did and it'll be $300 and 2 months for just the overflow plumbing. Far from ideal

 

[mrpontiac80]

I did and it'll be $300 and 2 months for just the overflow plumbing. Far from ideal

Wow. Yeah I could see the desire to do some diy then.

 

[twentyleagues]

I did and it'll be $300 and 2 months for just the overflow plumbing. Far from ideal

Yeah follow what @UncommonSense said. But do not run 1200gph return pump. You get in tank flow from in tank pumps. 400 gph max on your tank for return. You could go higher but there is no need to.

 

[UncommonSense]

Yeah follow what @UncommonSense said. But do not run 1200gph return pump. You get in tank flow from in tank pumps. 400 gph max on your tank for return. You could go higher but there is no need to.

Assuming 3-4ft of head loss on a 1,200GPH pump; most submersible style pumps will have lost 25-33% of their claimed flow rate when measured; this means you can still barely squeak by with 3/4” hard plumbing for the pump return side, then reduce to 2X 1/2” bulkheads for the loc-line returns!