Is this a bad idea? (Frag system plumbing)

[Taylor810]

I am building a frag system in my garage. Going to have four 50gal lowboy tanks plumbed into a 75 gallon sump and then one unconnected lowboy running on an HOB filter for quarantining new corals.

I am using metal shelving units and, for space saving purposes, am going to be stacking the tanks one ontop of another.

I want to cut down on how much new equipment I need to buy. Right now, I have a Jebao 6500 running one frag tank at 30% power. I figure that pump should have no problem running two return lines, and maybe even have a little left over for a manifold. But there's no way that pump could handle returns for four pumps at once.

Obviously, I could buy a bigger pump, but I don't really want to if I don't have to... I'd much rather save a couple hundred by using the pump I have, and reinvest that money into better lights or something. That's led me to this idea. (Return lines are blue, overflow lines are green)

The idea is that I would plumb the return lines into the two tanks on the top shelf. Those tanks on the top shelves would be for LPS and SPS colony growouts. The water from those tanks would then drain down into the tank below. Those lower tanks, since they'll probably be getting a bit more detritus and such, are going to be for my softies (zoas, mushrooms, leathers, and anemones). I would then have those lower tanks each drain into filter socks on opposite ends of the 75G sump.

I have seen plenty of people plumb their tanks like this. Is there any reason not to do it this way? If I have the water drain into those lower tanks, can I still add lockline to the bulkheads to direct the flow, or would that increase the risk of them getting clogged?

Or should I ditch the bulkheads and just have the drain lines empty out directly into the tanks? Is it worth it to add filter socks those lower tanks to capture detritus, or would that be redundant?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Staghorn]

Looks solid. The only change I would make is to run both drain likes to the same side of the sump And move the return to the opposite side. You will be able to maximize your sump space and that way and then you know that all the water flowing through that return line has gone through both the refugium and the skimmer chamber. I wouldn’t bother with the lockline on the returns you are going to have to have some kind of powerhead in those tanks creating current anyway.

 

[Taylor810]

Looks solid. The only change I would make is to run both drain likes to the same side of the sump And move the return to the opposite side. You will be able to maximize your sump space and that way and then you know that all the water flowing through that return line has gone through both the refugium and the skimmer chamber. I wouldn’t bother with the lockline on the returns you are going to have to have some kind of powerhead in those tanks creating current anyway.

I thought about doing that first. My only concern is that I would need to run the one drain line the entire length of the sump and there isn't a whole lot that I can use to brace that drain line. With the design I have to drain in both sides of the sump, I can use a strap to reinforce the drain lines and connect them to the shelving unit's upright supports.

Let's say I take the far right tank and drain it all the way on the left side of the pump. That's a pretty long run of slightly pitched, unsupported pvc. Its gonna shake a lot. I could brace the pvc by attaching it to the upper shelf with a pvc strap, but that wouldn't look nice haha

 

[FFFishy]

I believe that your Quarantine Tank is much too close to the other tanks to avoid contaminating those tanks. It doesn't take much (a few drops of water) to transfer ich, velvet, etc. from tank to tank. I've read that QT should be at least 10 feet away from other tanks.

 

[Taylor810]

I believe that your Quarantine Tank is much too close to the other tanks to avoid contaminating those tanks. It doesn't take much (a few drops of water) to transfer ich, velvet, etc. from tank to tank. I've read that QT should be at least 10 feet away from other tanks.

I should have clarified. The QT tank is for new corals, mainly to give me time to identify things like aiptasia, bubble algae, zoa pox, and other pests before I add them to the system. I dip everything I get in, but the dips aren't 100% effective so if I can isolate problems in that HOB tank, I can treat them there before I add the coral to the main system.

I am going to set up a fish quarantine tank farther away.

 

[User]

I should have clarified. The QT tank is for new corals, mainly to give me time to identify things like aiptasia, bubble algae, zoa pox, and other pests before I add them to the system. I dip everything I get in, but the dips aren't 100% effective so if I can isolate problems in that HOB tank, I can treat them there before I add the coral to the main system.

I am going to set up a fish quarantine tank farther away.

Ick and velvet tomonts (cysts) can come in on any hard wet surface, and hatch into tomites (free swimming infectious) in that tank. As long as you don’t have any fish to further propagate the cycle in those tanks, it should be fine.

but a lot of people put worker fish in frag tanks, so I wouldn’t do it. Separate QT should be 10 feet away to prevent air born transmission of droplets containing tomites. Any splashing creates aerosols which travel quite a distance