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Moving in from Texas

@Jeff Rehling , clearly you know how I work. I split a compression union in half this evening and was planning to simply glue it in to the overflow box, but the prospect of something I can trade for a frag and an excuse to meet someone else in the club might just win out. I'll let you know, and if nothing else it's an excuse to meet someone else in the club.
 
I'm not sure what height I want my overflow box to be, and so I need it to be adjustable. In my freshwater tank (roughly 7' overflow box in an 8' tank) I put 1 1/4" pipes up from the ground, cut o-ring grooves in to the 1" pipes coming out of the overflow box, and installed the 1" pipes inside the 1 1/4" pipes like telescoping tubes. I then put in some plastic set screws to hold the height. I want something a bit cleaner looking than that for this setup so the main two options at this point are:
1) Glue in the compression union halves, plumb the entire thing with 1", and then simply tighten the union nuts in place.
2) Bore out the center of two bulkheads so they slip fit 1" sch. 40 PVC, cut o-ring grooves in the pipe so they seal to the bulkhead ID, and then slip the bulkheads over the 1" PVC. Adjust the height, and probably trust the o-ring friction to keep them from moving.

At this point option 1 is the plan of record, but option 2 is certainly a possibility until the day I actually plumb it (maybe this weekend?).
 
Compression unions should be fine; I think HD/Lowe’s have telescopic, to put it this way, PVC assemblies and am pretty sure they have an O-ring BUT not sure if there are metal pieces that could rust and the type of lube on the O-ring might have to be cleaned off.
 
xcaret said:
Compression unions should be fine; I think HD/Lowe’s have telescopic, to put it this way, PVC assemblies and am pretty sure they have an O-ring BUT not sure if there are metal pieces that could rust and the type of lube on the O-ring might have to be cleaned off.
Click to expand...
No metal or even lubricant, just a big rubber chunk and PVC, I've used them on reef tanks before. I went with non-telescopic, but that would work too. I'll post a picture when I get it up.
 
Wow that was the easiest tank move I've been apart of! :D Glad you got your tank up though.

As to your overflow, I'm a bit confused on what I'm looking at, you said black acrylic because it looks nicer, I assume this is the box that is going INTO the tank and I agree black makes it disappear, but if it's going into the tank why are there bulkheads at the bottom of overflow box? Now if this goes OUTSIDE the tank, then how is the water getting from inside the tank into that outside one? (FYI, I think you made it a bit too shallow if it's your outside box)
 
The tank is drilled in the middle, and by that I mean middle side to side and front to back, with 3 holes for 1" bulkheads. It does not have an overflow tower however. I don't really want to deal with an overflow tower up the center, so I'll make a 90° bend, run the pipes to the back wall, then have them come up vertically to the long narrow overflow box I've made. This way I don't lose as much tank space as a full internal c-c, but I also don't have to cut weirs in to the back wall. Of the two holes in the overflow box one will be set at the floor of the box and run full (restricted) siphon. The other will be set a bit higher and catch the excess, at least that's the plan. I'm assuming the drains will be able to keep up with the pump in that manner. I'd really like to bend the PVC on the inside at the back wall rather than glue in a 90° fitting, but in all honesty I'll probably take the lazy route and just glue them in as I don't have my kit for that out here (AKA some compression unions, plugs, and a gas stove).

Previously when I had this tank running I just had 2 pipes ending straight up as drains near the surface and a third as the return. However, this restricted me to a fairly low flow rate, and also clogged up with the occasional invert, so I decided to build a box this time.
 
You should just use all 3 for a bean animal drain and have returns come over the back.

Bean Animal > Herbie > Durso


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While I did that on my big reef I'm not willing to make my return line external to do so. I'll have an ATK hooked in to an Apex already, and I have an optical level sensor for port 4. Preference was to use it in my skimmer, but it probably makes more sense to use it as the emergency shutoff in the display.
I suppose I could run the ATK on a single level sensor as well, then I would have a spare for a level sensor in the skimmer or ATO chamber. Port 3 will be a leak detector.
 
Compression fitting

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Adjustable length fitting

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Ok I get what's going on, the tank had an "island overflow" but you've changed it to the back. I mean if it were me, instead of running long pipes in my tank to the holes there, I'd plug the holes in some way (patch or plug) and then drill for new holes along the back wall.
 
I need a tank to run for 3-12 months. I'm not going to risk breaking my only tank drilling it so that I don't have to use a pipe setup that has been successful for me in the past. I suppose it will be a bit of an eyesore as I'll probably go without sand given the short duration, but I can live with that. I'm sure I could borrow a set, but my diamond drills are also in Dallas still.
 
It's been a busy weekend. Still behind, but closer.
I drilled the stand for the holes in the tank, then lowered the tank down to the surface of the stand. I then got a floor in part of the stand for the sump with wood from the crate. The sump is in, but not plumbed. In partial violation of my own rules I put a wall for electronics in. It is under the tank, but has a wall separating it from the sump.
Next went the plumbing. They were out of 1" standard PVC elbows, so I went ahead and bent the pipes. Not my best bend job, but it got the job done. I really wish I had remembered to ship the old plumbing with the tank.
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I then realized that without a step ladder or chair I would have a really hard time doing the rock stack, so I went ahead and built a platform with a bit more of the crate material.

Next came the rock stack. I'm not thrilled, but I also ran out of rocks. For reference this is 90-95 pounds of rock, dry weight, and I think it's a fairly open stack.
I don't have any putty handy, nor am I planning to drill these rocks for this tank so I shook the tank around a bunch, corrected the loose bits, and am going to hope for no major quakes in the next several months. The big tank will have its rocks drilled with plastic rods whenever it goes back up.

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So this is what I have. Pretty sparse, but all the rock I could get on the plane.
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Next I need to throw in a bit of water to level the stand. I forgot the booster pump power supply and a couple fittings for my RO unit, so I'll grab those from TX when I'm there me route to PA next weekend, then hopefully add water and salt when I get back. That should give me time to order in some bits for the return lines along with some other odds and ends.
 
I did find a blatant mistake. I got an XF 230 instead of an XF 250, so not enough flow I'll have to grab another circulation pump from my collection when I'm home next.
 
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