Sizing Overflow & Plumbing for 400 gal Peninsula

[chome360]

Building my first tank, and I'm trigger shy on the final decision for the overflow box/drain/return plumbing decisions. Actually I'm holding up the build now. Is there an exact science to this that I should be following? The tank is a 86 long, 42 wide, and 28 tall peninsula. I haven't decided on a pump yet, likely an Abyzz, one of their smaller ones. Maybe a dual pump return for redundancy...

I'm thrown off by the variables, like length of weir, size of teeth, size of external overflow box, return plumbing size, drain size, etc. If anyone has some thoughts or can point me in the right direction, I'd greatly appreciate it. Would love to simply clone someone's similar and successful build...

 

[eggie]

Building my first tank, and I'm trigger shy on the final decision for the overflow box/drain/return plumbing decisions. Actually I'm holding up the build now. Is there an exact science to this that I should be following? The tank is a 86 long, 42 wide, and 28 tall peninsula. I haven't decided on a pump yet, likely an Abyzz, one of their smaller ones. Maybe a dual pump return for redundancy...

I'm thrown off by the variables, like length of weir, size of teeth, size of external overflow box, return plumbing size, drain size, etc. If anyone has some thoughts or can point me in the right direction, I'd greatly appreciate it. Would love to simply clone someone's similar and successful build...

I would take a look at Synergy Shadow Overflow you want to have a big overflow to manage the tanks return

https://synergyreef.com/products/16-shadow-overflow

 

[RocketEngineer]

Building my first tank, and I'm trigger shy on the final decision for the overflow box/drain/return plumbing decisions. Actually I'm holding up the build now. Is there an exact science to this that I should be following? The tank is a 86 long, 42 wide, and 28 tall peninsula. I haven't decided on a pump yet, likely an Abyzz, one of their smaller ones. Maybe a dual pump return for redundancy...

I'm thrown off by the variables, like length of weir, size of teeth, size of external overflow box, return plumbing size, drain size, etc. If anyone has some thoughts or can point me in the right direction, I'd greatly appreciate it. Would love to simply clone someone's similar and successful build...

Search Melev’s Reef. He’s been running a similar system for over a decade at this point.

 

[RocketEngineer]

My take on this would be a 30” weir on the 42” end, giving you 5+” on either side. In this gap, I would run the cords for the powerheads of choice. I would run the returns to the opposite end if possible or on either side of the weir if not.

For drains, I would go 1.5” BeanAnimal setup and like you said, dual pumps. The drains would be directly under the weir to keep that pipe as vertical as possible. The return pumps can handle more pipe distance so having those at the opposite end of the sump from the weir makes the most sense to me.

HTH