Ok, so I got a 120 with 100 pounds of live rock for $300…tank, stand, hood, DIY halide and VHOs…
It is drilled on the bottom, no overflows yet…im working on making them.
my question is regarding the plumbing to the sump…it looks like I can make my own plumbing kit, rather than purchasing one…is this wise?
also, could i just run a straight pipe up in the DT…as my overflow…and run another pipe straight down to the sump?? can someone explain the durso design a little to me??
what is my best option for plumbing??? The tank has 4 holes, 2 in each corner…they are currently capped…
Best option, come back over to my house and look at a set up. Their pretty much isn’t an option to buy an off the shelf kit to run plumbing from your sump to your tank, so why pay money for something inside an overflow box when you need to learn anyways. Plumbing is not that hard, but isn’t difficult either to mess up and wake up in the morning with your sump empty your floor wet and your heaters in the air.
lol, ok…the more I read, the more I see its definitely a DIY project…im not super worried about the noise (I say that now) but that seems to be a reoccurring theme in the threads regarding plumbing.
do you have you refugium before or after your skimmer?
It is drilled on the bottom, no overflows yet...im working on making them.
your half way there! and nice steal btw. you are the KING of craigslist
my question is regarding the plumbing to the sump...it looks like I can make my own plumbing kit, rather than purchasing one...is this wise?
easy, easy, easy.
also, could i just run a straight pipe up in the DT...as my overflow....and run another pipe straight down to the sump?? can someone explain the durso design a little to me??
no. not a good idea IMO. noisy fish hazard with no surface skimming.
bro, you are 8 hours too late! i just orderd black acrylic this morning to make overflows. i could have saved you some shipping costs! i just bought a high end table saw a month or so ago and a top of the line acrylic blade that cuts so clean the edges dont even need finishing! i also picked up a couple other acyrlic tools. real straight forward project. cut the acrylic to size, cut teeth in it it, bend it, silicone down in the corners. build your dursos and returns and voila! you have a reef ready tank!
i have an appointment to help jared/lindsey with some plumbing tomorrow but i could probably pencil you in sometime soon! ;D im going to build an overflow for Bill and myself in the next week or two and if you can get the acrylic ill hook you up.
Seriously order of skimmer and fuge does not matter. There are ideals if you have OCD you’ll go out of your way to make them work, but I wouldn’t worry about it. As far as what I’ve done I haven’t had a fuge at home for as long as I’ve run tanks. I’ve kept chaeto in my system and it never took off and I really didn’t need it either. I’ve got a little one I just set up with my mangrove and a little Halmedia, but the set up was far from ideal and the Halmedia crashed.
Seriously when you have a couple hours to spare give me a call and you can come over and take a look at what I’ve done and I can talk you through a set up. Afterwards perhaps you can take a little bit of time to look at my plan and excel documents. I will be gone this weekend, but back on Monday.
I wanted to get the black acrylic, then i was just thinking about getting the clear and gluing rocks and shells to it…still not sure yet…after reading a little more, i think i can handle it now, although i may need you to pencil me in for an acrylic bending session…
jon, ill give you a ring on sun. night/monday to set something up.
These are my stand pipes that i bought from Duroso and they are very quiet. I think the 90 they use is called a street elbow and put a hole on the top cap with a valve to adjust the air intake. it helps with the height of the water in the overflow.
great pics John! and fantastic point about the 1/4" hole on the top of the elbow. by putting the ballvalve on the airline you can dial in the amount of air pulled in to reduce the gurgling sound. also good point about the elbow. im not sure what they are called but if you buy one at lowes/home depot its sold as a spigot elbow which is the name of the end that fits into a fitting as a pipe would.
and these involve no siphon/no power failure hazards?
the only siphon danger is if you have your returns(often locline) submerged beneath the water. OEM overflow kits have a small hole drilled on the underside of the return elbow as an anti-siphon but i wouldnt recommend putting one in because the can be noisy and create a lot of salt spray if you you have a high flow return. as long as you keep your returns only slight submerged you will be fine because the top one inch of water or so will drain into the sump when the pump is turned off. this is the important factor that you must compensate for when setting the water level of your sump.
