Plumbing and setup for an innovative marine 200 EXT

[garyfri]

Thank you all in advance for the help and I look forward to returning help to the community one day.

All my previous tanks have either been canister or plumbing included (soft line) for a 75 gallon. I just preordered the IM 200 EXT and have a series of question:
1. They can this a bean animal drain but it is missing the top j and the second drain j with the hole drilled in it. Does the top parts to work as a bean animal?

2. The pipe leaves at 1". I read a lot on here and different forums and they discuss head pressure. I also have seen a youtube video where he recommends never using 1" draining. I understand the 1" is the restrictor, but would I gain anything immediately behind the overflow increasing to 1.5 all the way to the sump?

3. My return is 3/4 LOCLINE. I am running Vectra L2 1.25 output up to a y split to 3/4 (the higher the better). Would this work and any recommendations?

4. I am planning of using a lot of unions for plumbing to the sump. I was either looking at the Tideline Sump 48x20 due to its large footprint. I also looked at the Trigger CR44 and Trigger triton 44 V2. I have a 12x9 quantum skimmer and a NYOS TORQ that needs to fit in the skimmer or return pump section and I want to run a refugium. Any recommendations or experiences?

Once I get everything I will document my setbacks and builds. Thank you all.

NUVO EXT Reef Ready Aquariums | Innovative Marine

External overflow reef ready aquariums. Using the "Herbie/Bean Animal” drain system for double/triple safety redundancy. 50 to 240 Gallons.

www.innovative-marine.com

 

[garyfri]

should i post this is a different section?

 

[KStatefan]

I would not call it a Bean Animal drain but a three pipe drain system. A 1" drain in full siphon will flow a lot of water.

 

[garyfri]

So am I not needing the j pipe added to the top? What is the purpose of that on a bean animal then.

 

[KStatefan]

So am I not needing the j pipe added to the top? What is the purpose of that on a bean animal then.

To keep air from entering the siphon.

There are a few build threads of people with IM EXT tanks have you looked at them?

 

[ThePlummer]

Ok, I'm going to link a youtube video that really explains what you are asking in a very simple fashion. You can also follow my build thread, because very soon I'll be doing the plumbing on mine. I have basically done with a Innovative Marine AIO 120 shallow reef tank, and am converting it to an EXT.... Actually, I'm a bit jealous of your new purchase, but not of the price tag... I got mine for $200.00.

 

[JoshH]

I'll throw my limited knowledge in here as well just for the fun of it ;Smuggrin

1. They can this a bean animal drain but it is missing the top j and the second drain j with the hole drilled in it. Does the top parts to work as a bean animal?

Technically this is not a true "Bean Animal" drain and to be honest no external overflows are true Bean Animal drain setups. I like to call these modified Bean Animal drains as they are different from the original design but share the same basic principles. Your setup will still function like a Bean Animal even without the U shaped tops on them.

The function of the U shaped tops are 2 fold Depending on what drain they are on. First as @KStatefan mentioned, the U shape helps prevent the maine siphon line from sucking in air while in operation, this prevents the sucking noise that forms when the drain starts drawing in air (Not typically needed in deeper overflows which is why I'm guessing it's not included in the Innovative Marine tanks). And second, this is the more important reason. On the Secondary drain the U shape with a hole drilled in the top of the U will allow the Secondary siphon to start up a lot faster and at a much lower level in the overflow box preventing the Overflow from, well, overflowing. It once again isn't as important in a deeper overflow box but still a nice feature to have and it's really easy to install.

2. The pipe leaves at 1". I read a lot on here and different forums and they discuss head pressure. I also have seen a youtube video where he recommends never using 1" draining. I understand the 1" is the restrictor, but would I gain anything immediately behind the overflow increasing to 1.5 all the way to the sump?

1" line will flow quite a bit as it is, would you gain some flow increasing the pipe after the bulkheads? more than likely. Will it be a significant increase? Not so much. Head pressure is more for the return side of things, head pressure restricts flow and the more pipe and higher it goes the more head pressure you have. Drain lines work a little differently in that the more drop you have, the faster the water will flow (To a point). Honestly your sump will be so close to the tank neither will create serious issue or benefit for you and you're probably best to just leave the 1" as is.

How much flow were you looking to put through your sump?

3. My return is 3/4 LOCLINE. I am running Vectra L2 1.25 output up to a y split to 3/4 (the higher the better). Would this work and any recommendations?

Are there dual 3/4" outlets on the tank? If so your plan will work just fine. Definitely add the Y or T as close to the height of the outlets as you can. Your overflow will probably be the limiting factor here. Unless you run 1 1/4" (I would probably step it up to 1 1/2") all the way up to the outlets themselves. The the position of the split won't matter.

4. I am planning of using a lot of unions for plumbing to the sump. I was either looking at the Tideline Sump 48x20 due to its large footprint. I also looked at the Trigger CR44 and Trigger triton 44 V2. I have a 12x9 quantum skimmer and a NYOS TORQ that needs to fit in the skimmer or return pump section and I want to run a refugium. Any recommendations or experiences?

No personal experience with either sump however the general rule of thumb is go as big as you can. Keep in mind you're probably going to want room for a controller cabinet of some sort under there as well. Most skimmer sections are oversized and will most likely fit both your skimmer and reactor. However it's worth double checking with the manufacturer of each sump on the chamber sizes just to be 100% sure...

 

[garyfri]

@ThePlummer and @JoshH . Thank you so much. I have really been learning so much and it is great for you to help me. I guess you can turn the flow up high enough that the bean animal siphon can create a vortex and suck water. From what the video says the J keeps this from happening. I am going to add the J portion on both of mine.

I am trying to run between 1500 - 2000 flow i guess. Still researching that portion. Again thank you both so much.

@KStatefan I have been spending so much time look at stuff on this forum. I will probably eventually run across an IM EXT build but I have not yet. There are so many cool builds though.

 

[garyfri]

@JoshH and anybody else. So I am putting together my final plumbing plan with my sump being done and delivered soon. So the one area I am questioning is the sump splitting the main siphon and ran to below the water level of my refugium. At first, I was going to place a 1 1/5 inch pipe teed off below the main valve gate. Then my concern is I would have to be able to force that much air out of two 1.5 inch pipes split. See pic below.

1. So if I use a 1.5 inch pipe as the main siphon drain should I use 3/4 or 1 inch for the split to the refugium? (hand added in pic the proposed pipe and valve.
2. As long as I go below the waterline in the refugium and the refugium and dial the flow down with a value control before the refugium would that be fine?

Thank you for your assistance.

 

[JoshH]

@JoshH and anybody else. So I am putting together my final plumbing plan with my sump being done and delivered soon. So the one area I am questioning is the sump splitting the main siphon and ran to below the water level of my refugium. At first, I was going to place a 1 1/5 inch pipe teed off below the main valve gate. Then my concern is I would have to be able to force that much air out of two 1.5 inch pipes split. See pic below.

1. So if I use a 1.5 inch pipe as the main siphon drain should I use 3/4 or 1 inch for the split to the refugium? (hand added in pic the proposed pipe and valve.
2. As long as I go below the waterline in the refugium and the refugium and dial the flow down with a value control before the refugium would that be fine?

Thank you for your assistance.

1. So if I use a 1.5 inch pipe as the main siphon drain should I use 3/4 or 1 inch for the split to the refugium? (hand added in pic the proposed pipe and valve.

How much flow do you want running into your refugium? That will really determine what pipe size to go with.

2. As long as I go below the waterline in the refugium and the refugium and dial the flow down with a value control before the refugium would that be fine?

So what you actually need to do is have 2 valves AFTER the split in the main siphon drain. One will control the flow to your fuge and the other will control what goes to the filter socks. You need the valves after the split because each valve needs to balance out the flow between the two otherwise even with the T you won't have any flow going to your fuge. Water takes the path of least resistance and flowing straight into your filter socks is definitely easier than flowing horizontally into your fuge.

I had a very similar setup on my last tank and after a bit of tuning it worked extremely well. It can be tricky to get the two valves balanced where you want them.

 

[garyfri]

Thank you. So I will put it below the split. I will most likely do the split and run a 1 inch pipe to the refiguim. Figure smaller pipe easier to purge the air. Thank you again.

 

[RocketEngineer]

All that “balancing” sounds too risky for my taste. I just fed my last refugium with the main return pump. Simple, fail safe.

 

[JoshH]

All that “balancing” sounds too risky for my taste. I just fed my last refugium with the main return pump. Simple, fail safe.

Zero risk atall with a herbie or Bean animal drain setup. ;Smuggrin

 

[RocketEngineer]

Why invite potential problems? You don’t gain anything by using the drains. I see no reason to complicate matters.

 

[garyfri]

All that “balancing” sounds too risky for my taste. I just fed my last refugium with the main return pump. Simple, fail safe.

Most Triton methods recommend feed from no socks. Did you chaeto grow and maintain your nutrients as that method says it will. Currently I have a 75 gallon aquarium
with a small refugium and it really doesn't control my nutrients enough to skip water changes.

 

[garyfri]

Why invite potential problems? You don’t gain anything by using the drains. I see no reason to complicate matters.

What risk are you concerned about. I understand it will take a lot of tuning but is additional risk I am missing. Thanks for the feedback

 

[RocketEngineer]

When I was running just chaeto it worked great. Then I did some stupid things and the whole tank collapsed. My fault, lesson learned. I’ve learned I need to set things up to be as simple as possible. Three valves on a drain line means 3 places for something to plug up the works. Now sure, a Bean Animal would ensure the tank was okay. But what about the fish that made it through the one valve only to get stuck in the smaller one, die, and now you have a nutrient spike and a $50 fish that’s just disappeared. Instead, I have one valve mostly open and find the clownfish swimming in the sump when I get back from a week away. To me, I’ll take the latter.

 

[JoshH]

Why invite potential problems? You don’t gain anything by using the drains. I see no reason to complicate matters.

I don't see any potential problems with it atall. Not much more difficulty in balancing it than balancing flow running your fuge off your return pump ;Bored

 

[KStatefan]

You could do a fixed orfice drain into the refugium and then you would just have to balance your siphon with the gate valve at the filter socks.

 

[garyfri]

@KStatefan "fixed orfice drain" interesting. I googled this but could not find anything. Do you mind explaining a little. Thank you in advance.