My Lee-Mar luck!

[gumbii]

that's a whole other thread...

[firereef]

Originally Posted by tran383

Now if I can only change this to "My Lee-Mar Build!"

You can, just click on the little triangle/exclamation point thingy under your post count and asked the mods to change the title.

[ReefMeister2]

was the first tank (the blemished one) the Grand Prize tank, or did you purchase a different one?

[Sinful Aquatics]

Tony, that was a lot of drama but I'm glad you got a nice tank! Good luck with your build.

Savethereef aka Rob is just plain ol nasty hahahaha

[tran383]

Originally Posted by ReefMeister2

was the first tank (the blemished one) the Grand Prize tank, or did you purchase a different one?

The tank I got was the one Lee-Mar had displayed in their booth. I think the grand prize tank was a 120.

[savethereef]

Originally Posted by Sinful Aquatics

Tony, that was a lot of drama but I'm glad you got a nice tank! Good luck with your build.

Savethereef aka Rob is just plain ol nasty hahahaha

Man that's because glass tanks are heavy. You been to my house you seen how big that thing is.


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[sharkE]

man that tank is teh secks!
I cracked a 240 glass so... no more glass for me... but this would make me almost reconsider

[tran383]

Can someone √ my plumbing to make sure everything looks right? I haven't filled the tank to test for leaks (except a bit inside the overflow) yet but mostly everything is glued or Teflon taped except for the drain connects to the bulkheads in the sump, they're siliconed. I am doing a Herbie style drain with (2) 1.5" drains and (2) 3/4" returns.

I got a Max-Flo 2900 return pump but I don't know what else to feed it besides the return and carbon/gfo, so I added an extra feed for a chiller or something in the future. I ran the 2900 in a trash can and I am afraid this thing might have too much flow for my application.

Full plumbing - returns will connect to the top manifold and middle will be used for carbon/gfo and the last one will be closed off:


Laguna Max-Flo 2900:


Rear manifold support (this thing fitted right makes your plumbing solid):


Herbie style drain with returns:


Bulkheads (I still need to put on those metal clamps on the returns):


Power strips and wall for all the hardware:


Does anyone know if those 12" x 12" orange rubber gaskets from HD are safe to use in the sump? It's the piece under my pump. I am hoping it will reduce vibration and noise caused from the pump. Suggestions, tips, comments. Thanks.

Tony

[gumbii]

where did you get that power strip thing...? with the orange buttons...


want...







and looks good so far... very impressed... nicely done...

[tran383]

Originally Posted by gumbii

where did you get that power strip thing...? with the orange buttons...


want...







and looks good so far... very impressed... nicely done...

Guitar Center! It's the American DJ power strips. Still ample space to get back there and plug things in. Thanks!

[savethereef]

That's the same pump I'm using on my 225. I have it teed off to my frag tank and to the eturns and my reActors


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[firereef]

That's some pretty impressive plumbing you got there. Thanks for the ideas

[ReefMeister2]

its a bit late now, but one thing I would have suggested is schedule 80 bulkheads and true union valves on every hole.
1) you won't break a schedule 80 bulkhead no matter what you do. The valves can be found at HomeDepot in 3/4" and 1" sizes for around $20 each.
2) The valve allows complete shutoff for maintenance, replacement, modifications, etc.



3) Don't rely on the spring-loaded one-way valve to stop a back flow (they won't). A better option (or perhaps in addition to) is to create a siphon break by drilling holes in your returns, pointed down, just below the water line
4) its hard to tell in the pic, but if thats's a 4" filter sock bracket, ditch it immediately and get a 7". You'll clog up constantly for this size tank....even if they are duals
5) I would build an emergency overflow drain for your sump that dumps water to a drain (preferably) or simply outside your house in the event of an overflow. If you are on a raised foundation, it can be something as simple as a bulkhead drilled in the bottom of your sump, a 6" nipple going through the floor, and a standpipe of appropriate height, which then dumps excess water under your house. Its intention is for emergency conditions, only, so better to have a few gallons of water under your house than in your carpet.

I hope this helps

Kevin

[firereef]

Kevin can you explain in detail the purpose of a siphon break drilled hole in the return hose that you mentioned above? I'm will be plumbing my new tank soon and need ideas. Thx

[tran383]

Originally Posted by savethereef

That's the same pump I'm using on my 225. I have it teed off to my frag tank and to the eturns and my reActors

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah Rob, I went off your pictures you sent me a while back to get an idea of how many items I can feed and designed it accordingly. Thanks!

Originally Posted by firereef

That's some pretty impressive plumbing you got there. Thanks for the ideas

Thanks Tanu. I had good help and advice on here.

Originally Posted by ReefMeister2

its a bit late now, but one thing I would have suggested is schedule 80 bulkheads and true union valves on every hole.
1) you won't break a schedule 80 bulkhead no matter what you do. The valves can be found at HomeDepot in 3/4" and 1" sizes for around $20 each.
2) The valve allows complete shutoff for maintenance, replacement, modifications, etc.



3) Don't rely on the spring-loaded one-way valve to stop a back flow (they won't). A better option (or perhaps in addition to) is to create a siphon break by drilling holes in your returns, pointed down, just below the water line
4) its hard to tell in the pic, but if thats's a 4" filter sock bracket, ditch it immediately and get a 7". You'll clog up constantly for this size tank....even if they are duals
5) I would build an emergency overflow drain for your sump that dumps water to a drain (preferably) or simply outside your house in the event of an overflow. If you are on a raised foundation, it can be something as simple as a bulkhead drilled in the bottom of your sump, a 6" nipple going through the floor, and a standpipe of appropriate height, which then dumps excess water under your house. Its intention is for emergency conditions, only, so better to have a few gallons of water under your house than in your carpet.

I hope this helps

Kevin

All good suggestions Kevin. Thanks!

- I really wish the holes were drilled for SCHE 80 as well, I tried to fit a smaller size bulkhead but it just didn't fit right.

- I do like the idea of true unions on every hole but it just lowers my plumbing a lot. I might consider it for my returns since once the 3/4" hose goes into the barbs it's practically impossible to remove it w/o cutting it, plus I'd be too scared to pull the hose off the barbed while connected to the bulkhead.

- I totally agree on the check valve, it's only a matter of time before they fail and they always fail so that's why got them threaded so they are still serviceable. There's actually only one reason why I put the check valve on, it's mostly for when I do my water changes. On my old setup I hated the fact that I had to shut my skimmer off because if I didn't, the water from the tank would drain down to the sump and change the water level and my skimmer would overflow. This way I can just run the skimmer all the time and not have to worry about the water level changing when the return pump is off. I usually always rely on my return nozzles to break the siphon since I always run them right below the tank water line. I try to calculate it so that my sump can always accommodate the DT water level w/o dependencies on the check valve.

- It's a 7" filter sock and there's only once since the other drain is an emergency drain. I don't really use filter socks, but when I had the sump made I figure I might as well include one cuz all the cool peeps have one

- It'd be totally nice if I was able to do this, my tank is on an island wall so there is nothing around for me to e-drain this thing and I'm on a slab but I think the sump should be able to handle all the water from the DT. I'll definitely be doing many black out checks.

Thanks again all.

[solitude127]

For your main drain, you may want to raise that up as high as you can. It'll quiet the waterfall sound a whole lot.

[gumbii]

Originally Posted by firereef

Kevin can you explain in detail the purpose of a siphon break drilled hole in the return hose that you mentioned above? I'm will be plumbing my new tank soon and need ideas. Thx

the break is there for when the returns are alot lower than the overflow box water level... so when the flow stops, the break holes catch all kinds of air and stop the sypon all together...

but like kevin said... i would drill them somewhat small, and pointing down at an angle... it's just something minute and cheap to fix a huge costly problem... if any...

[tran383]

Originally Posted by solitude127

For your main drain, you may want to raise that up as high as you can. It'll quiet the waterfall sound a whole lot.

Hi Mike. I thought the main drain height in the overflow didn't matter since when it's under a full siphon the water level will rise higher than the main drain standpipe but not higher than the emergency standpipe and the gate valve regulated this? How tall is your main drain and your emergency drain?

Someone told me you essentially didn't really need a standpipe for the main drain in theory, since when you closed the gate valve the water level would rise and as long as your drain is submersed a fully siphon would occur.

[psykokid]

Tony - only semi problem i see is with the T you have for the return line. Since you have the input coming in on the straight run and the output going out of the 90 deg side and on the straight run my thoughts are that water will naturally take the path of least resistance in general.

To my eye that means that most of the flow will be coming out of the return nozzle on the left and then a lesser amount coming out of right. How much will that change the amount of flow between the two? I'm not sure actually, since you dont have it filled yet the ideal solution would to be to order a hose barb Y fitting instead of using the T like you have now. If you must use the T then have the main flow coming in on the 90 degree side and the returns exiting on the straight run. Everything else looks good..

[solitude127]

Originally Posted by tran383

Hi Mike. I thought the main drain height in the overflow didn't matter since when it's under a full siphon the water level will rise higher than the main drain standpipe but not higher than the emergency standpipe and the gate valve regulated this? How tall is your main drain and your emergency drain?

Someone told me you essentially didn't really need a standpipe for the main drain in theory, since when you closed the gate valve the water level would rise and as long as your drain is submersed a fully siphon would occur.

I'm running the herbie method as well and when my stand pipe was lower, I would close the gate valve on the main drain to get the water level high enough where it wouldn't be too loud from the water falling into the overflow box but in turn, I closed the valve too much and it couldn't handle the flow of the pump. I may be doing it wrong, but that's my experience.
My emergency drain is just under waterline of my display (maybe 1/4" or so) and my main drain is about 3 inches lower than that.

[tran383]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I really wasn't happy with the way my returns were and I hate working with barbs so I decided to change the returns and added unions so I can remove the entire thing if needed, in case something needed to be added to the manifold. I still have to fill the tank and test the herbie pipe height to make sure the pump flow will match and make adjustments accordingly.

[reefgeek31]

The problem with your syphon being so low is in a power failure your overflow box will drain to that level. Your sump might be able to handle it but its a cheap easy fix to add a little pipe and raise it and have more emergency room in case your anti syphon fails. It will also take some time for your over flow to refill and will make a ton of noise and make adjustments a nightmare. I have ran this system on @ least 8 tanks and love it.

[tran383]

Thanks for the herbie standpipe raising suggestion. It would have made a lot of noise if my main drain was shorter from water entering the overflow or I'd have to close the gate valve quite a bit more to raise the water level. Here's what I changed it to:



Got a few more things done this weekend. Hung the Maristar fixture on the ceiling and did some aquascaping. I picked up 50# of the Marco Key Largo rock and was able to use the rest of the LR from my old setup.

Aquascaping outside the tank isn't always what it seems. The results are often impossible to replicate considering I forgot to allow room for the overflow box! ha!

Planning phase:




My dragon design lol:


Full Front:

I'm not sure how I feel about the stack towards the left side. I might dismantle it and figure out something else for it.

Left angle:


Right angle:


Left side view detail:


Right side view detail:


I still need to add 2 more bags of sand.

Here's the sump, standard design AA had I just added the two bh mounts, sock holder, black bottom/baffles, and 1/2" all around.

[scrapz]

looks great tran. can't wait to see it filled up with coral.

[psykokid]

looks great tony! cant wait to see it cycled and full of goodies.