Multiple closed loops???

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

You’re going to put your two return pumps through 18 return nozzles? How much water are you planing on running through your sump? Have you though through contact time? I use 2 L2’s for returns. I’m presently at 28%, my system is 550g display is 375. I would be lower but my returns travel 8 feet on the ceiling so they have head to fight.

 

[Tonycass12]

You’re going to put your two return pumps through 18 return nozzles? How much water are you planing on running through your sump? Have you though through contact time? I use 2 L2’s for returns. I’m presently at 28%, my system is 550g display is 375. I would be lower but my returns travel 8 feet on the ceiling so they have head to fight.

Sorry for the confusion thats just the 2 closed loops

 

[mfinn]

I’ll be h


I’ll be home in an hour. I’ll shoot and upload a video. I’ll explain it on video. The do’s and don’ts of looping, lol. I’m gonna show you some “don’t do” methods! lol.

I'm most interested in how you do the suction side on the inside of the tank. How you protect fish from an area that's sucking 4k to 5k per hour.

 

[Tonycass12]

I'm most interested in how you do the suction side on the inside of the tank. How you protect fish from an area that's sucking 4k to 5k per hour.

This is something ive been thinking about. Ive got a very deep overflow in my 300. I think its about 8" front to back. Was thinking about making some tabs that could be glued to the overflow and the side of the tank so I can slide in an acrylic "grate/screen" to create a box on each side of the overflow protecting the closed loop drains. Also planning on splitting the 9k gph draw between 2 drains for redundancy and to help from creating one single vortex of death lol. Will still have strainers on each of the closed loop drains behind the "grate" as well.

 

[Tonycass12]

You’re going to put your two return pumps through 18 return nozzles? How much water are you planing on running through your sump? Have you though through contact time? I use 2 L2’s for returns. I’m presently at 28%, my system is 550g display is 375. I would be lower but my returns travel 8 feet on the ceiling so they have head to fight.

Great looking tank and corals btw @WhatCouldGoWrong71

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

Great looking tank and corals btw @WhatCouldGoWrong71

Thank you!!

 

[Tonycass12]

I thought 3 loops would do the same (less need for power heads). I guess I could have gotten away but as a tank grows, lower loops don’t move with the growth. You wind up having to drop lower heads in. Growth eventually becomes disruptive to flow (which is what you want). You just have to chase flow. I’ll tell you this. I’ll never do upper loops again only lower. The Orca has solved for that. My new tank has 14 holes all in the lower 1/3rd.

What was the reason you won't do upper loops again?

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

What was the reason you won't do upper loops again?

Orca. Chiller I won’t put on a loop (fear of the pipe bursting (landscaper breaking it) and entire tank draining. I can bolt UV to a lower loop. Upper loops are to assist with flow. Orca is a much much better and safer option.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

My chillers (both tanks have one) are plumbed from the sump back to the sump.

 

[Tonycass12]

Orca. Chiller I won’t put on a loop (fear of the pipe bursting (landscaper breaking it) and entire tank draining. I can bolt UV to a lower loop. Upper loops are to assist with flow. Orca is a much much better and safer option.

Ok I figured that may have been the reason. Seen you got another tank for the garage, im excited to see the build on that one.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

Thanks. I need to decide what I am going to do about the lookdown tank. I could leave it alone. It would make a nice frag tank for the new 770g. It’s 48x48x18.

 

[mfinn]

So im in the early stages of planning right now. This past weekend I picked up a 10'x2'x2' acrylic tank. Unfortunately I realized on pickup that thos thing was constructed from 1" acrylic for all the sides and ¾" for the bottom amd top eurobrace. So using my 6 mp40s on this tank is not going to be an option. High flow is a priority, its going to be mostly sps in this tank.

Im looking at doing at least 2 maybe 3 separate closed loops now. This looks like it will be the most cost effective way to get the flow im looking for. I would like to do 2 separate closed loops on the bottom with each having 3 returns and possibly an additional closed loop on the top of the tank. Each of the loops would be powered by a 4k-6kgph external pump. I figured doing it this way would not only add some redundancy but allow me to scale it up after the tank is filled and livestock added. I could potentially start with just the bottom 2 closed loops and have the top one plummed but not necessarily hooked up right away.

Any opinions or thoughts on this plan? As much as I would like to use some vectras for the pumps they are just too expensive so I'll probably be going with hammerhead/barracuda hybrid pumps.

I asked this earlier on someone else's comment. But I'm also wondering about your idea.
How do you plan/are doing about the suction side inlets on your closed loop runs?
Specifically how do you do the strainers on the inside of the tank? Do you use just a single end strainer? Or length of pipe with holes? Do you create a box to help diffuse the powerful suction flow?
Also do you plan any future maintenance on it?

 

[Tonycass12]

I asked this earlier on someone else's comment. But I'm also wondering about your idea.
How do you plan/are doing about the suction side inlets on your closed loop runs?
Specifically how do you do the strainers on the inside of the tank? Do you use just a single end strainer? Or length of pipe with holes? Do you create a box to help diffuse the powerful suction flow?
Also do you plan any future maintenance on it?

Im planning on slip on strainers for the lines but im also thinking building a false overflow for them. I mentioned this earlier, you may have missed it. I have a very deep overflow box, like 8" from front to back and a foot wide so ive got these funky 8"x6" areas on each side of it that are really useless as far as corals go. Was thinking about making some tabs so I can slide in a chunk of acrylic that would turn those into a giant 6"x2' "wall/filter grate" of sorts. The whole thing would have slots cut into it for the flow to freely go through but prevent any fish from getting sucked to them. That should allow the very large amount of flow (9k gph) without the risk.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

I would be carful about using the overflow box as a place for the suction side of the loop. I almost did this but, the loop will impact the gate valves adjustments. As well as if you run the box dry.

I don’t have an issue on my main display with things getting stuck to the strainers. I do on my lookdown tank. I had to build barriers out of egg crate to prevent this.

loops 1&2 - L2 @3300 GPH through 1.5” - no issues
Loop 3 Abyzz a400 @4,900 through 2” - no issues to report. Beast mode (1 minute an hour) 6,200 I haven’t seen issues.

My look down tank has to Reeflo pumps. 6,000 GPH through 1.5” - very very very bad :)

 

[mfinn]

I would be carful about using the overflow box as a place for the suction side of the loop. I almost did this but, the loop will impact the gate valves adjustments. As well as if you run the box dry.

I don’t have an issue on my main display with things getting stuck to the strainers. I do on my lookdown tank. I had to build barriers out of egg crate to prevent this.

loops 1&2 - L2 @3300 GPH through 1.5” - no issues
Loop 3 Abyzz a400 @4,900 through 2” - no issues to report. Beast mode (1 minute an hour) 6,200 I haven’t seen issues.

My look down tank has to Reeflo pumps. 6,000 GPH through 1.5” - very very very bad :)

My thoughts too.
I made my strainer for the RD3 150 watt pump out of 2' of 1-1/2" pvc pipe and 3 90's, with a few hundred holes. Then a plastic 14" x 12" box with slits in it.

 

[Tonycass12]

I would be carful about using the overflow box as a place for the suction side of the loop. I almost did this but, the loop will impact the gate valves adjustments. As well as if you run the box dry.

I don’t have an issue on my main display with things getting stuck to the strainers. I do on my lookdown tank. I had to build barriers out of egg crate to prevent this.

loops 1&2 - L2 @3300 GPH through 1.5” - no issues
Loop 3 Abyzz a400 @4,900 through 2” - no issues to report. Beast mode (1 minute an hour) 6,200 I haven’t seen issues.

My look down tank has to Reeflo pumps. 6,000 GPH through 1.5” - very very very bad :)

My thoughts too.
I made my strainer for the RD3 150 watt pump out of 2' of 1-1/2" pvc pipe and 3 90's, with a few hundred holes. Then a plastic 14" x 12" box with slits in it.

Ok I think were losing a little bit of info in the way its being written. The drains for the closed loops will be to each side of the overflow. 2 1.5" drains on each side for each closed loop return. See attached photo. Grates would go from the end of overflow box to the outside of the tank. The grates would just help keep the fish away but not effect water level or flow into the original overflow. Here is a picture of the overflow, the orange lines are where I would place the grates, the blue is where the closed loop drains would be plummed in. Shouldn't effect flow into the original overflow at all. The grates would be something like 1/8"x1" slots top to bottom with a little gap in between for some support but still allow plenty of flow and be removable for cleaning.

 

[Tonycass12]

And of course because I finally had enough snow melt to get it unloaded today I needed to take the "in the tank" photo that I feel everyone should when they get a big enough tank to fit in.

 

[W31Olds]

MP 40's are expensive. If it were my tank, I'd explore making a jig and using a variable speed router to make 1/4 inch deep circular cutouts. 1" thick acrylic seems like overkill for a 10x2x2 tank so removing materiel should not be problem.

 

[Tonycass12]

MP 40's are expensive. If it were my tank, I'd explore making a jig and using a variable speed router to make 1/4 inch deep circular cutouts. 1" thick acrylic seems like overkill for a 10x2x2 tank so removing materiel should not be problem.

Thats not something im willing to take on or risk. If i were having a tank built I would jump at this option but not worth it to me to try this myself and possibly destroy the tank. Ive already got 6 mp40s on my current systems but I would like to move away from having pumps right in the viewing area. That would really be unavoidable with mp40s on a tank as long as this one. My current 4' tank has two right on the end panel.

 

[W31Olds]

Understood, I don't care for the look of Pumps in the Tank either. My Red Sea Tank has a weir in the back that hides all the pumps, but my New Tank that's on order doesn't have that so I'll need to use visible Pumps.