Hardscape

[Trevor W]

Originally Posted by Baldy

haven't done one beside, but I mounted one to the wall above and hung my light fixture from it. It houses my doser, 3 jugs of supplements, and all my led drivers. I used wiremould from it to behind the tank and it looks clean with all the wires and airline tubing inside it. I don't see why one beside wouldn't work if you have the space for it

Thats a great idea and its these little things that to me really make a huge difference in the over all appearance of a tank.

I definatly have the space. Something like a wire wrap or possibly a piece of pvc to thread all the wires through going to the cabinet was definatly a must. I am still juggling the idea of hard plumbing with pvc a supply and return line to and from the sump for my GFO and Carbon reactors so that is what made me think of possibly just having another horizontal run of pvc that all my wires will run through. Or just simply wire wrapping them and having them run along the floor behind the stand and secondary cabinet.

[Trevor W]

Well.....the tank is finally filled and the plumbing doesnt seem to have any leaks....BUT....I cant seem to get it running properly! I dont know if I am just an idiot or if I screwed up on my plumbing design.

So I started by filling the display to the point where it just started to run over into my overflow. Next I started filling my sump I began by filling the far left side which is my drain side then it overflows and goes through 2-4" filter socks than that overflows and fills my middle chamber or skimmer section than it goes through a set of baffles and into my return pump section. So I filled all the sections and than let the skimmer and return section fill about 3-4" above the height of the baffles. I plug in my return and the tank starts to fill, and fill and fill....water starts going through the drain but the display fills up to the point that its almost overflowing and than the return section starts running dry so I rush and unplug the pump and even though my drain was wide open, I didn't have a chance to start dialing in the gate valve because as my display was about to overflow the pump started running dry and I unplugged it. I have tried repeatedly with the same result.

Overflow:
Herbie style overflow with 2-1.5" drains.
1 gate valve on the main drain.
Emergency drain is unrestricted.

Return:
1-1" return line all the way till it is reduced to 3/4" loc-line in the display.
Quiet One 4000 (991 GPH).

I posted photos of the sump layout and drain/return lines on the previous page. What am I doing wrong?!?!?

[lockrookie]

What's your over flow plumbing size? If you have the latest generation quiet one pump see If you can turn it down. As well you have alot of turns on the overflow pipe it may be causing back pressure or restricting somewhere. Also try taking that thingamajig of the main line it may be restricting.

[Baldy]

Maybe try choking back your return pump to begin with. If you don't have a ball valve right after your return pumps outlet, you should put one there

[reefwars]

there is no way a 900gph return pump is overflowing a 1 1/2" pvc drain , there has to be something else going on , a 1" drain should be more than enough let alone a 1 1/2" drain , you shouldnt have to turn down your return pump.

im running 2400gph after 3ft of head through a 1" pvc and i have the pipe restricted about half way with the gatevalve.

[lastlight]

Agreed about the overflow that doesn't add up.

For a PVC wire run you could use an angle grinder to cut a wide slot lengthwise down your pipe and mount it with slot urn away from view. Nice and easy to lay wires in there. By nice and easy I mean it will still be a giant pain to remove a wire if needed but better than fishing them through...

[kien]

Was thinking maybe your stand pipe was too high but I don't see a standpipe in your overflow.. You didn't add one afterwards did you?

Did you put any sort of gating material into your overflow weir? Like acrylic or egg crate? That could restrict your flow considerably without the appropriate size grills.

[kien]

I went back and had a look at your weir and it does look like you have an acrylic sheet on that back wall with slits cut out for the weir. It's possible those slits are too small and not allowing enough flow into the overflow box. You may have to cut those slits bigger.

[Trevor W]

Originally Posted by kien

I went back and had a look at your weir and it does look like you have an acrylic sheet on that back wall with slits cut out for the weir. It's possible those slits are too small and not allowing enough flow into the overflow box. You may have to cut those slits bigger.

Yes it does have one piece of black acrylic covering the pane that is notched for the overflow. I had also thought that perhaps the cuts in the "teeth" are just not large enough. Well I will have to come up with some way of making these larger. The acrylic is siliconed to the pane and it also has a euro-brace. So any suggestions on how to make these larger?

No stand pipe, just a 1.5" strainer that I unscrewed after the first failed attempt.

[Trevor W]

Originally Posted by reefwars

there is no way a 900gph return pump is overflowing a 1 1/2" pvc drain , there has to be something else going on , a 1" drain should be more than enough let alone a 1 1/2" drain , you shouldnt have to turn down your return pump.

im running 2400gph after 3ft of head through a 1" pvc and i have the pipe restricted about half way with the gatevalve.

This was exactly my thoughts aswell!