Veteran who cant plumb a tank

[Blaque Kuchel]

Hello reefers,

I currently have a 90g tank and I decided to upgrade to a 120g instead. I ran my current plumbing on my 90g but now I feel like I am over my head.

My 120 has dual overflow/returns. I just purchased a Pro Aquatics Red Flex 300 reef sump to go with the tank as well, which has two inlets. The only other equipment I have that needs to be plumbed in at this time is my UV and possibly a media reactor down the road. I apologize if my vancaular is not correct here.

I am so at a loss of words, thoughts, the works and feel way over my head when it comes to plumbing this tank. I really need someone who has some experience with plumbing and designing it to help me design the plumbing. I can execute the plan lol.

I included pictures of my current 90g sunp design, the new sump and the 120g tank.

This is my final tank and I want to make sure it is done right.

Thank you in advance for everyone's help.

 

[motortrendz]

You can run each drain separately to the sump, keep it simple.

 

[James77]

Your final tank...how many times have I told myself that....

Don't overthink it. You could do 2 durso style drains, each draining to one of those drain fittings. Run a main pump, and split it to each return.

You could add a 3rd split, and cap it off. That could be your future UV or media reactor, if you wish to run all off one pump. If not, any reactors or UV can easily be added later


For those drains, hard plumb them with PVC, and use unions so you can easily remove or change them.

 

[JoshH]

With a dual overflow setup like that your options are really limitless, you could do a Bean animal drain with the extra pipe being your return or a Herbie with dual returns as well, split them between the two different overflow boxes.

 

[Blaque Kuchel]

Haha holy crap!

 

[Blaque Kuchel]

Sorry lol. This is like a foreign language to me.

 

[W1ngz]

You have 4 pipes going to the tank. That's perfect.
Start from the left and work your way right.
Make one of those pipes your return.
For a silent and safe system you need 3 drain lines. The good news - you have 3 lines left!

One will be fully submerged and have a full siphon. You'll want the pipe inside the overflow to be a few inches below the water line. Connect that to either of the sump inlets. Inline on that pipe, put a gate valve so you can tune and adjust it.

The next will be the open channel, open because it has no valve and it doesn't take a lot of water. It takes what the full siphon doesn't. The top of that pipe will be at the water level of the overflow it's in. Connect that to the other sump inlet.

The last drain is the emergency. It should be below the rim of the tank, about 1/2 inch above the water line. The other end of that empties directly into the sump above the sump water line. If the emergency has water flowing, something is wrong and you will hear splashing.

 

[James77]

Is it the two drain inlets and dual megaflows throwing you off?

You plumbed the 90 gallon, it is not all that much different.

 

[Blaque Kuchel]

Just a megaflow kit by aqueon. So I believe that's a single durso. I'm not trying to be ignorant I just suck at this. I did this on my 90 but j am sure it's wrong haha

 

[W1ngz]

Now that I look again at the sump, the plumbing will be neater if you put the return and emergency in the right side so they line up closer to the return section of the sump. The other two will be more in line with the sump inlets, reducing the plumbing and number of elbows and horizontals you need.

 

[Blaque Kuchel]

I mean if you dont mind drawing it up for me I would appreciate it but if you cant that's cool too.

 

[W1ngz]

 

[PerplexyHexy]

Plumbing blows... I remember doing mine, took me over a month to mock it up and dry fit, glue, and test... My least favorite thing in the hobby. Once its done though, you will be a master... keep your head up bud, you got this... soooooo worth it in the end!!!

 

[Blaque Kuchel]

I really like that design but I have a question and maybe someone can help me out.

Since this would be converting my dual overflows to a bean animal style drain, the right overflow would be just return and emergency drain but what happens with the water that behind the overflow....it just sits stagnant? Is this normal?

 

[Blaque Kuchel]

Any thoughts? Anyone?

 

[W1ngz]

You could
-swap the trickle and the emergency
-Add a small pump to the bottom of that overflow

It would be better if someone with tower overflows added an opinion, my preference is side drilled tanks with external overflows, and that's the only type of system I've built.