Plumbing your sump?

[dbrewsky]

I personally had a eshopps at one point and I can definitely relate about the u-tube issue. I never had mine fail but there were a couple times where if I hadn't intervened the system would fail. I cant speak to whether or not one is superior. The benefit of the cpr is that in the event of a siphon loss the aqualifter pump would be a fail-safe that could restore the siphon where as the eshopps would not.

 

[ash9965]

i made a stockman standpipe for under 10 bucks and it works great

 

[reef_junkie]

For all of my tanks I like to hard plumb drains with unions so I can take it apart and I use soft tubing for returns. I like the idea of keeping as much head pressure as possible.

 

[AZDesertRat]

I wouldn't take a CPR style HOB if someone gave it to me free. No thanks. I can't see depending on another piece of equipment, the Aqualifter, to prevent a flood. U tubes should never lose prime unlike the CPR.

 

[RMAS0934]

Thank you all for the feedback! @AZDesertRat would you know why the u-tube style would function with the issue I described? The u-tube got bumped and the water level in the sump would change drastically. After that happened, I could never get the water level in the sump to be at consistent level (taking into account evap of course). If the u-tube leaned to the left or right along the top wall (not in or out of the water but left or right), then it would either flood the ob or drain the ob. Once I thought I had it positioned correctly, I could sit back and watch the water level in the sump raise an inch over ten minutes or drain an inch over 5 minutes. This of course made me not even ant to leave the house with it running, as the return pump could've burned out or the sump overflow...So I switched to the CPR style.

 

[hybridazn]

Question for you, would you hard plumb with the sch40 pvc from a HOB overflow to the sump? I am a little worried about the weight it would add hanging off the bottom of the HOB overflow. My current overflow is beyond load (like I can hear it gurgling from upstairs on the other side of the house with the door shut loud). I thought it would be better to get rid of the hose and use pvc pipe and elbows but I don't know. I was also going to build a hofer gurgle buster and try that. Anyway, would you suggest stick with the hose or hard the overflow to sump? Thanks!

I like the look of pvc so I would say yes go for it. If the overflow is that loud I would slow down the return to quiet down the drain.

 

[RMAS0934]

So you're saying that the return pump is too strong? Or that I should install a valve under the OB to lesser the force of the water down the drain? Sorry....new to this, guys.

 

[hybridazn]

I would put a ball valve on your return to slow down the flow which in turn will quiet your drain.

 

[RMAS0934]

Thank you!

 

[ThePapa]

I tried throttling the water flow of the drains on my daughters 265 gallon tank a dozen different ways to muffle the roar. So with a zero budget constraint I ran the drains into a 2 liter soda bottle and let that overflow into the refugiums. The difference was phenomenal. Pretty, maybe not but it worked great. I was not an R2R member then and had no idea what other people were doing. I see some of the other posters have some nice designs I will have to try in the near future.

 

[john.m.cole3]

This is how I plumbed my most recent tank.

The colored PVC was purchased from BRS. Otherwise standard PVC from any hardware store works fine. I just wanted mine color coded. I purchased the union ball valves from aquarium specialty.

Now that is a super clean look!

 

[spartanman22]

Now that is a super clean look!

Thanks! My current setup is crowded, cramped and just outright unsightly so I made sure to fix all those mistakes this time around.

 

[Newstead]

Or you can do what we did ... after watching every video on youtube, reading 8,000 articles, staring at plumbing fixtures for hours , I finally had the answer. Called our great LFS and sent them pics of our tank and sump. 2 days later they came out with all the supplies, 2 hours later we had a herbie plumbed tank and sump that are so quiet I have to actually look at it to maje sure it is on. No drips, leaks, pulling my hair out ;-).

 

[dangros]

Are those union ball valves easy to adjust? I have a standard ball valve from home depot that I curse at when needing to make fine adjustments on my herbie drain pipe. Looking to replace it with as small a fitting as possible. There is very little room under my stand. That setup is a vision of beauty. Nice job!

This is how I plumbed my most recent tank.

The colored PVC was purchased from BRS. Otherwise standard PVC from any hardware store works fine. I just wanted mine color coded. I purchased the union ball valves from aquarium specialty.

 

[spartanman22]

It's still sitting dry at the moment so I can't comment on how well they work when full of water, but they are very easy to manipulate currently. I'd recommend them over the Home Depot valves. I've had those in the past and they're a huge hassle to fine tune with.

 

[FLSharkvictim]

I agree with @dbrewsky, if this is your 1st time, i would STRONGLY suggest just using Flex tubing, much easier and a lot less expensive.
Here is how mine turned out but I have been in the hobby for over 25 years and dropped well over $300.00 for the proper material.