Basement Tank design/layout help.

[Fitz19d]

Can't use sketchup from work, will try to get awesome images made up later.

Situation: When I move into the new house, hopefully fairly rapidly I will be moving the 55g into the 125 as I'm packed beyond what I should be in my 55.

Total tanks are:
125 w/ unknown exact size sump/refugium.
55g w/ small 20g sump/refugium.
29 or 31g with stand and overflow box with rigid pvc tubing and a small 5 or 10 gallon sump.

Pea**** Mantis will be having a tank mostly to itself. Everything in 55 can go in 125, though things like tiny mantis and lion may need to go elsewhere if I want ornamental crab/shrimp (Sexy/Pom Pom/pistol) Conundrum is ideally the pea**** gets the 55, 29 is a tid small but might work fine especially with right rockwork. Issue is I don't want to end up running 3 independant tanks.

Andrew gave me the idea of a display/remote refugium of sorts. I'm trying to work through how to do this exactly. Issues with height may be there as the stand for 29 puts it waist/chest high. He talked about drilling, but so far I've been fine w/ HOB overflow. Wondering what obstacles or any reason I can't do:

Option A: 125g into 29g beside it. (Mass pod farming hopefully/macro/mantis), 29g overflows to sump underneath 125. Or possibly just try to run the 55 as the refugium/aggressive tank and only use one sump. Issue there is squeezing 2 skimmers into one sump or otherwise being limited there.


Option B: Go even further. Run 125g w/ 55g several feet away and divided between them with the 29g. Run one super system. Question is can I make 2 overflows or split the one to go to each big tanks sumps. Or even Run cascading the 55>29g>55Sump>125sump>Return Or 125>29g>55Sump>55>125sump>Return

Rough Image of B Options: All the B options I think would suffer from trying to match flow or else eventual problem. Even identical pumps may have that problem and I don't have oodles of dough to be buying tons of extra equipment.

As for physical layout. Idea is 125 a few feet from wall so I can get behind if need be. (Unfinished basement) The 55 depending on plan, could be free standing in the room. So if I did a shared 3 tank system could maybe make an L shape with 125 on wall and 55 as the leg out in the open.

 

[Andrew_bram]

Basement Tank design/layout help.

The reason I would drill a display refugium is to drain the 125 into it then plumb the refugium into the sump under the 125 and allow that to go to return pump.

 

[Fitz19d]

What I'm not understanding is why drilling would be required other than it being just nicer and a little safer than the hob overflow. (Or does the plumbing on the 125 preclude it from going into the 29 on a stand due to heights? IE if 29 above the 125 plumbing could actually siphon into the 125 instead)

 

[Andrew_bram]

Basement Tank design/layout help.

I get it sorry. Yes I think height may be issue. Sorry misunderstood.

 

[Smiley]

if I was to use your layouts, i would choose B2 as you would only need one return pump if water fell into each other. Use the sump under the 125 as a refugium with return. Everything would have back drilled, not bottom drilled.

 

[Fitz19d]

Here's a video of the house. Comment/help away! [video=youtube;QEN9Uuc2Gj0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEN9Uuc2Gj0&feature=youtu.be[/video]

 

[FishTV]

Sorry Fitz, didn't realize you did have a thread..:redface-new: The plumbing, and electrical are much easier to deal with in a basement, run new circuits, new water lines, drains are already there. Perfect place to add a utility sink. You can build the tank into a wall that hides that beam support and enclose a small fish room to hide the equipment.. Sky's the limit in an empty basement.

 

[Fitz19d]

Yeap, I cant wait to own, but it's a rental so some limitations. So like cheap saddle valves a no go. Needs to be reversible or at least considered a true upgrade. The corner in the video idea is roughly an L, 55 one wall, 125 the other. Both set off a few feet so I can get behind them searching for lost frags and such. (Since I will already have a ugly basement, I'd rather have the ease of space than trying to make it as artistic as possible.

 

[FishTV]

Ahhh.. I still vote basement. I have tanks all over the house, and my bigger tanks are in the basement, and by far are the easiest for me to take care of. Electrical is the only real problem I see, but not impossible, just depends on what your landlord allows.

 

[Fitz19d]

Electrical hoping to just take a couple existing outlets and extend them over to that corner. I've had some say that my equipment shouldn't overload that circuit even with it + computer. (T5's, when $ allows DIY LED) 125 wont be setup for a bit so have time there, but the 55 will be moved in Fri or Sat, so I'm probably going to have to do extension cord to powerstrip for now.

 

[deboy69]

Re: Basement Tank design/layout help.

More than welcome to take a look at my setup.I am getting a bigger pump so this one might be for sale if you need a large pump reeflo hammerhead wink wink

sent from your home

 

[daverf]

If you're OK with it going into the unfinished basement anyway, and trying to save money on running stuff to the tank, than why not just situate it closer to the water and electrical access?

+1 on a utility sink.

If you want to be sure on power, just add the watts from everything you'll plug in, divide by 120, and you'll have amps. Check the circuit load, chances are you have a 15 amp circuit. As long as you are under that, you'll be OK. Not an electrician but that's what I think is correct on electrical.

You should make sure the concrete pad is level under the 125. I assumed mine was, and you know what they say about the word assume . I had an uneven surface issue.

 

[jda123]

It is very hard to get 2 sumps to drain in equilibrium to meet the demands of the return pump. I doubt that it is impossible, but many, many have failed. Basically, you have to use ball valves on the drains to make sure that enough water goes to each, in equilibrium... and then one snail, buildup of algae, etc. slows down one drain by 5% triggering one sump to overflow while the other one goes dry and could burn up a pump.

If you have an unfinished basement then get a CL dishwasher and hook it up - nothing better to wash/clean fish stuff with than a dishwasher.

Drill the tanks, IMO. It is cheap and easy and they are way more reliable.

 

[daverf]

It is very hard to get 2 sumps to drain in equilibrium to meet the demands of the return pump. I doubt that it is impossible, but many, many have failed. Basically, you have to use ball valves on the drains to make sure that enough water goes to each, in equilibrium... and then one snail, buildup of algae, etc. slows down one drain by 5% triggering one sump to overflow while the other one goes dry and could burn up a pump.

If you have an unfinished basement then get a CL dishwasher and hook it up - nothing better to wash/clean fish stuff with than a dishwasher.

Drill the tanks, IMO. It is cheap and easy and they are way more reliable.

OK Doug, I'm glad someone spoke up on the risk as the multi sump plans made me nervous, but was above my league with plumbing configuration! That said, isn't there a lot to worry about with the single return pump configuration as well? In the design options for the original post, B2 seems it could still be recipe for disaster if there are overflow failures at any point in the chain. The worse would be if the 125 overflow fails, in which case the sump with the return pump plus all transit volume throughout the entire system would dump on the floor. Seems there should be dual overflows throughout the system, just to be safe?

 

[jda123]

If you have a single sump, then your only worry is if the drains are big enough. You can have multiple pumps to multiple tanks.

I would drill and use 1.5" drains. Put 2 on the 125 and a single on the rest.

 

[jda123]

If you need to sumps, just connect the two tanks with 1.5 or 2" PVC and let gravity keep the level... this is really a single sump, just split out over 2 tanks.