Neptune Aquatics

210 gallon Dream tank

Update Part 2


It probably would have been slightly eaiser to use the old pipes that came with the overflow.


Yet after having the plumbing guru @Srt4eric assist me (mostly me watching him work if I'm honest lmao) plumbing a few of my tanks. I decided to prove to myself that I learned something at least and go with fancier with matching pipes, and mostly all hard plumbing.
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I also had to drill a few holes into the back of the stand to run the pipes through to the sump.


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I decided to run dual return pumps this time around. After reading tons of posts on different fours I came to the conclusion it's better to run one return pump to each side of the tank verse trying to merge them into a single pipe running to both sides.

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I plan to run a in line Uv on one of the pumps drawing water from the sump and returning the sterilized water back into the display through the return line on one side.



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I ran out of pretty red pipe so got a temporary white one to run the plumbing to the left side of the tank, further away from the return pumps. (My current speculation is if I add a uv I would likely tap into the longer return pipe and maybe add a inline flow meter and a gate valve for fine tunning the uvs flow.)



None of the drain lines were glued.



So far I've only glued a few of the return plumbing most is only dry fit. Pending feedback and assuming I screwed something up in my amatuer 2.0 plumbing attempt that may need to be adjusted.

Still many other projects I'm needed for this tank. Yet once my plumbing is approved, I can glue the return pipes up and proceed to leak testing.

Always open to feed back or observations especially if you see a potential screw up or issue on my diy plumbing.

*** the return lines will be cut tighter to the tank stand on the bottom tried to leave extra room for the pipes going further into the fittings once glue is applied.
 
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I am impressed by your plumbing skills. And love the skimmer you are planning to use.
Thanks no skills lol, this sump kinda made it easy with specific spots for everything to go. Just a matter of trying to get the pipes to where they had to be. A different sump than I would have struggled a ton. I got the euro reef skimmer from a tank breakdown, never actually tested it out to see if it even works. It was in the sump to see if it could fit under the stand. It’s pretty tight but I can easily get the collection cup off.
 
So next update.

Based on feedback from my recent plumbing update I've heeded the various suggestions given to me by different members.

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To start with over the last week, I've preformed a water test with the tank still on furniture dollies. This involved only 3 inches of water just to cover the top of the plugs on the bottom bulkheads. Initially I had some slow drips the main reason for the 3 inches of water. I tighten the bulkheads that same day. And let tbe water sit for about 5 days. No addtion drips were found after tightening the bulkheads.

The water was drained and the dollies removed. I left a gap behind the tank after a member said reaching the plumbing would be difficult. For a guy my size impossible but I decided to leave enough space where I could potentially recruit a skinny bar member to help without draining the entire tank should a future issue require reaching rear plumbing.

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Based on a few different comments I decided to fork out the cash for some better ball valves for the bottom of the tank.

I also got the pvc safe pipe dope type material listed safe for pvc over the Teflon tape I originally used for the threaded connections.

In the end I opted against actually gluing the union bulk heads to pvc as they would current only act as a drain should I decided to later cap the pipes off and use these ball valves on a different project in the future.
(If I ever got the desire to do a closed loop with them I would glue them in at that point.)

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Feeling confident that the bottom of the tank wasn't leaking more feed back suggested that 3 inches of water wasn't enough water weight and pressure to fairly test the bottom bulkheads. So With the tank on the floor. I started filling it up with rodi water. The first 55 gallons are in the tank. So far not a drop of water has been observed anywhere on the plumbing under tank.

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My next partial project involved emptying the other 55gal barrel I had in the garage into intended corner in the kitchen. The rodi Barrel I the kitchen was also moved into that corner being that it was finally empty from putting it all into the 210.

The barrels are close enough to the tank that It would be feasible for automatic water changes one day.

However the main mixing station goal is to set it up similar to this below.
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I did order the uniseal bulkheads for the project a few weeks ago. Yet I haven't found the courage/confidence to attempt to the project. Quick connect hoses and the retun pump that can mix saltwater in addtion to moving the saltwater to the tanks.


It will likely take me 2/3 days to get the tank fully filled up including the sump.

The part that will have me really nervous of leaks. The overflow box, drain lines and return from sump through the backward of the tank.

If it passes leak test once full it will be time to test the dual return pumps. Than Mix salt into the tank and start adding structures/ crushed coral substrate. Yet I would want the system running a few days before adding salt to ensure I won't be wasting salt should I have problems.

Tank 210gallon
Sump 58 gallon
Total system volume estimate around 240 gallons.
 
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Just make sure you exercise your ball valves ounce or twice a month otherwise they may freeze or get locked up..
What was the thought about using gate valves instead of ball ?
Looks like cat approval lol
Tanks really coming together!! Great work
 
Just make sure you exercise your ball valves ounce or twice a month otherwise they may freeze or get locked up..
What was the thought about using gate valves instead of ball ?
Looks like cat approval lol
Tanks really coming together!! Great work
Point noted on keeping valves working. I wouldn't wanna spend gate valve money unless absolutely necessary. I have 1- 1inch and 1- 3/4,in gate but rather save them for a future project.
 
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