Cali Kid Corals

99sf's 150-Gallon Upgrade

Steve, I definitely owe you a powerhead, for helping with the tank breakdown. Would a MaxiJet 1200 work for you? If you remind me, I will bring you one during the frag swap. Unfortunately, the 1200s do not have suction cups, but hopefully you have a good way to attach it to your nano tank.
 
I would like to try it as the return pump. So it doesn't need to be anchored, I don't think. Bought a 600 but it's too weak.
 
It's definitely worth a try as the return pump. Rated for 295 gallons/hour, and uses 20 watts. And it should be a perfect fit for your tubing, if you just tried the 600.
 
Nice work on the plumbing dad!. Can he come to my house when i need to revamp my plumbing? :)

One piece of advice if it can happen. I would put a ball valve above the check valve as well so you can easily take it out for cleaning and perhaps a union (or better yet a union ball valve) on both of the returns not too far below the 90 (again so you can take it apart easily and adjust the return).

I wouldn't be too overly concerned with the back looking perfect. As long as it is pretty much covered, you will likely not even notice any imperfections once coraline grows on it (unless you are overly anal like me and clean the back panel regularly).
 
Dad is really skilled! His daughter is not. I tried to install a GFCI outlet near the tank, as everyone suggests for safety. In the process of removing the old outlet, I managed to shock my thumb. Thought that I had turned off the circuit but was apparently wrong :ghost: And after the shock, while flipping lots of circuit breakers, Dad realized that the outlet in question was already attached to the circuit in the bathroom that has a GFCI outlet, meaning that the outlet did not need to be replaced.

I have a question about my return pump. It is really powerful, even pushing up approximately 5 feet of water through 3/4 inch pipes. I think it is a Quiet One 5000 or 6000. Is this excessive for my system? Should I downsize my pump to save on energy and reduce the noise of rushing water?
 
After a lot of time wedged inside the tank, I managed to remove most of the deep scratches, using my hand and progressively finer sandpaper (400, 600, 1000, 1500 and 2500). Long day! Benjamin's buffer was really useful to even out the surface after the manual scratch removal.

My dad came over today to help me with the plumbing. So grateful to him! First, we put down styrofoam underneath the sump and the display tank, thinking the one inch thickness would compress a huge amount with almost 150 gallons of water sitting on top of it. Amazingly, it did not! So I need to replace the foam underneath the display tank with 1/2 inch, so that the lip of the stand will keep the tank from sliding off during an earthquake.
P2070046.jpg


Because I'm still waiting for the glue-on internal overflow boxes to arrive, we went ahead and drilled and installed bulkheads. Then, I tried to paint the back using the Krylon Fusion. Maybe I was too impatient, resulting in pooling paint that formed bubbles on the surface of the tank. After three coats, I gave up, because we needed to move to the next step: plumbing the drains & the returns.

For the drains, we used 1.5" bulkheads, with a 90 degree elbow in the back, rotated to allow the pipe to angle down toward the sump. Inside the tank, I have street elbows going into adapters that connect to the bulkhead. Around those street elbows & bulkheads, I plan to glue the long-awaited overflow boxes. I hope this makes the drains quieter!
P2070052.jpg

P2070050.jpg


For the return, we modified the previous plumbing to fit inside the sump. Before, the pump was external, causing concern that a pump blockage or failure would be a huge problem. After inserting the check valve (thanks Bryan) and attaching everything to the strong Quiet One pump, I slowly filled the tank with freshwater, to test for leaks. Sure enough, the adjustable valve that came with the system had a slow leak under pressure. Luckily, I had bought another valve last week during the hardware store trip with Sergio & Gus.
P2070054.jpg


Once we cut out the old valve and replaced it, there were no more leaks. I felt guilty for wasting that much tapwater, but the yard is really saturated, and the water actually had a decent amount of PVC flecks and acrylic flecks (and probably some Novus residue) inside of it, so the freshwater test served to clean out the system.
P2070051.jpg


The fish & corals are still alive in their holding tank.
 
Jeremy, thanks for letting me know your experience with your 150 gallon tank and return pump. Now, I need to search for a website that calculates loss of pressure due to height/ head loss, and try to read the model number on the bottom of my pump. That thing really shoots out a lot of water!
 
Thanks, Eric, for the link. If I entered everything correctly into the calculator, the resulting flow rate (after head loss) is about 600 gallons per hour. That makes sense, based upon how quickly the water was flowing out of the return pump at the top of the tank... about 10 gallons per minute. Puts my bathroom sink to shame, which produces about 2 gallons per minute, after turning the hot & cold spigots to maximum.
 
Hi Christina

You have a Quiet One 6000 submersible pump. I checked when we were trying to figure out if that pump could be placed inside the sump.

Tank set up looks good.
 
I like the eheims better. I turn off my eheim 1262 during my weekly water changes. It never fails to start. Not so when I used my Quiet One 3000. This gives me peace of mind if the power ever goes out, I'm confident it will start-up when the power comes back on.

You don't really need a high turnover rate from your return pump. Just invest in good powerheads.


edit: make sure your eheim has the regular impeller, not the needlewheel when using as a return pump.
 
i like eheim better.since your quiet one is powerful.you can tee it off and feed gac ,gfa or calcium reactor,that way you have less pump hanging all over you sump.


lapsan
 
Thank you, Gus. You're right... the pump is a Quiet One 6000, and we were able to fit it into the last chamber of the sump, making me less nervous than having it operate externally.

I realized that I have an Eheim 1262 pump from a skimmer that I bought but am not using. Would that be a better return pump than the Quiet One? The Eheim 1262 pumps 900 gph, uses 80 watts, and supposedly adds little heat to the sump. The Quiet One 6000 pumps 1500 gph (which is kind of excessive for my system) and uses 140 watts. I am leaning towards using the Eheim, unless some of you convince me that's a bad idea.

I just received the special threaded street elbows in the mail today, from Herco. Later this week, I'm planning to route the drains to the left side of the skimmer, since that seems to be the way the sump is designed to have water flowing. I will also be drilling holes in 2" caps that fit over the 1.5" street elbows, and hope that the drains will be quieter than during my freshwater test.
 
Bernie, thanks for sharing your experiences with both pumps. I did read about some problems with Quiet One pumps not starting after the power is cut. Very good point about checking the impeller... I'll open up the pump tonight to see if it has a needlewheel or a regular impeller. Those Eheim 1260/1262 impellers are expensive!

Lap, if I do end up staying with the 3000 pump, I could use it to also run the PhosBan media reactor and calcium reactor.
 
orientalexpress said:
i like eheim better.since your quiet one is powerful.you can tee it off and feed gac ,gfa or calcium reactor,that way you have less pump hanging all over you sump.


lapsan
Click to expand...


I agree with the teeing off the Quiet One.

On the other hand, I do have a Quiet One 4000 in my return (main tank is 58 gal) and honestly I have never had a problem with the restart. I have heard a lot of people complaining about it but
in my case I guess I have been lucky. I have had this pump for 3 years now.

The Quiet One adds a little bit more heat to the sump than the Eheim which in my case works out very good I do not have the need of a chiller nor a heater. By itself the pump keeps the waterb temperature just right.
 
Gus, I'm glad you have never had a problem with the Quiet One 4000 re-starting. I actually have the Quiet One 1200 on my 29 gallon, and it has worked fine, even though I unplug it about twice a week to feed the coral.

I checked the Eheim and it has a normal impeller. So, based upon the 80 w v. 140 w power consumption difference (at 24 hours/day), I'm leaning toward the Eheim.
 
This weekend, I made a lot of progress on the upgrade project. On Friday, Benjamin & I re-did the plumbing. His plumbing design expertise was hampered by the fact that I drilled the bulkhead holes near the top of the tank, leaving few options for the drains. Despite this, we managed to put in a very effective plumbing system, with tons of unions.

Decided to go with the Eheim pump, to save energy. Even with the 1262, I had to dial down the flow due to the significant noise caused by the drains. Any ideas about quieting the street elbows drains are appreciated. I don't have room to make a Durso.
P2070052.jpg


I learned a lot about plumbing, such as: radial saws are amazing; getting a good seal on a wide pipe is easier when I apply body weight and place the joint on the floor; I need to apply less primer to avoid purple drips; the pipe wrench necessary to loosen a 1.5" bulkhead is giant and costs a fortune (and is now returned to the store); and it is better to have two return outlets than one. We put unions so that the tank could be completely separated from the stand and set aside without damaging the plumbing.

Here is a photo of the mess in the middle of the plumbing re-do (honestly, my house is usually very organized):
P2200001.jpg


Here is the tank after the plumbing is done:
P2200005.jpg

P2200008.jpg


Here is the giant wrench:
P2200003.jpg
 
There's another wrench really light for plumbing, can't remember the name, I used it on my tank to tighten the 1.5" Bulkheads.
For the quiet down thing; I'm still working on the plumbing too of the tank and hope this image helps you but don't know if your 90 elbow's are glued already.
Instead of a 90 on the back of the tank (drains), a Tee with a cap and on top I'll drill a hole on each to control the gurgle noise.

DSCF0663.jpg
 
Mario, thank you very much for showing me a photo of your plumbing work. In your experience, does the tee with a drilled cap on the back of the bulkhead significantly quiet the drains? I have glued the elbows in the back (and have the system running), but I could remove several inches of water, get other bulkheads and try the tee method.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top