Check my plans for me please

[Claudey]

2ft cube
Top sump = fuge
Bottom = filtration etc.
Return via a SCWD
Circulation = tunze

I'm toying with the following design.

Basically there is 2 standpipes, the shorter of the two is the workhorse and is 100% fully submerged. This is achievable as the outlet flow is controlled by a ball valve. The second outlet is a backup incase the first one gets blocked. I have yet to mod the diagram in that the 2 outlets will not share a common pipe into the lower sump.

 

[trido]

My goodness that is one good looking set of plans.
How does the tunze work with the SCWD?

 

[Anonymous]

If the bottom one is going to be completely submerged and is going to be controlled by a valve then there is absolutely no point of putting a durso mod on it. It will do fine just as a straight pipe sticking up.


Course that is if it stays submerged. Its more likely that the water level will drop to that durso and stay around there. Then you are going to have a lot of overflow noise.

unless you shut the valve enough to raise the water level way above it like is pictured and then the water will likely keep rising until the second higher durso is doing a bit to balance the flow.


So, if you shut it enough to make the water level rise to the second durso, then there is no need for a short durso, or a pipe. You can just have the bulkhead in the bottom....

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Claudey, and :welcome:

That is the best looking plan I have ever seen.

I'd add a couple of more baffles if I were you.

What size pump are you using?

I don't understand the tunze either. Is it mounted using a magnet holder?

Louey

 

[Claudey]

Thanks for replies

Tunze will be mounted into false acryllic back wall. It has no connection to the SCWD. Maybe the following diagram may explain it a bit better.

The stand pipes and overflows are beginning to give me a headache!

The overflow need to be as quiet as possible (as it will be in a bedroom), so if you guys were presented with this tank and this situation, what sort of overflow would you use?

Not sure of the size pump yet, that will be decided once i have finalised the design.

 

[Anonymous]

If you put the valve controlling the flow through the lower standpipe as low in the run as possible the water going through it will be near silent, as it will be a completly full pipe.

The other one you will have to tune to get it silent, there are instructions on Durso's page.

what did you use for your drawings?

 

[Claudey]

Drawing package used is "sketch-up"

So do you think the plans are feasible then? Are there any other better alternatives out there?

 

[trido]

Looks well planned to me. Seems everyones needs and tanks are different. Once you get it up and running you will need to fine tune it. But looks good to a newb to me. Keep in mind that pvc is cheap if things arent perfect. all is good

 

[Claudey]

Getting closer to my goal i think .....

This just shows the kinda aquascaping i desire, central island, achieveing swimming space, sand space and shelter at back of tank (plus uses less live rock!)

 

[jdeets]

Baffles: I would recommend making the final baffle only 1/2 as tall as your current diagram shows. The reason is that you want the water to exit UP coming out of the baffle system. If the water has to go all the way to the top--your sump is going to be really full--leaving no room for backflow in the event you lose power. AND, more importantly--if water cascades over the final baffle DOWN into the return bay, it's going to pull bubbles down into the return pump.

If the upper edge of the final baffle is under water--that will keep the water (and bubbles) moving up. With that design you wouldn't need additional baffles.

I can't really tell how you get water from the refugium into the sump--my thought is that the refugium looks too shallow. You could make it deeper, and drill it/fit with a pipe going down into the sump. You want the refugium to overflow so that the water exits the refugium from the surface--so as to keep all your copepods and other critters from ending up in the sump and return pump. I have my refugium higher than the sump like you do--but I drilled it at the top, installed a bulkhead going to PVC pipe with a 90 elbow that feeds through a PVC into the sump along with my overflows.

One other little trick--you can space your first and second baffles farther apart, and take a piece of acrylic, drill it multiple times (leaving more holes than acrylic) and place it in there horizontally. (Glue two pieces of acrylic flush against the side of the sump to support each end of the drilled acrylic.) Then, if you need to run charcoal, you can fill up a filter bag and lay it in there. Or if your water is cloudy and you need to polish it, you can lay a piece of filter media in there for a few hours.

These are just a few ideas I utilized when I built my own sump, and I have had very good results.

Hope this helps.

 

[Claudey]

I like your ideas, especially the shelf with holes in for carbon etc, nice one thanks