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DIY: Plumbing for tank rack


BaZ

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I am planning a rack of 2ft tanks for my room here, and want them all (2 rows of 6 = 12) to be on a system which uses the one sump.

I understand the basics:

Pump in sump pushes water simultaneously to all tanks on system.

Each tank overflows and sends water back to the sump where it passes through filter media and starts the cycle again.

For getting the water from the pump to the tanks I am undecided whether to use the rigid white pipe you find under the sink, or something more flexible like oversised canister filter hose. Do any of you lean either way on this one for any reason?

Coming from the tanks to the sump I was just going to use the rigid white stuff.

At this stage I am picturing a hole in the back of each tank for an the overflow, and a bulkhead fitting will allow water to pass down into the drain pipe back to the sump. Notice in the top view (below) I will be sitting the tanks sideways to normal, to be able to squeeze a few more in.

The 2nd pic below shows the proposed placement of pipes in each tank. The 'out' pipe is in the middle of the back panel, right at the top. The 'in' pipe comes in through the lids, on an angle which will get fresh water to the front of the tank and avoid dead spots.

user posted image

Do any of you have any ideas, suggestions, criticisms?

I'd rather learn now than in 6 mths time when I find it's not working the way I hoped it would.

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If the overflows go directly down to the sump (ie no right angles except for the original angle out of the tank) then rigid pipe is fine. If it needs to flow in any direction except directly down, I'd go flexi hose (washing machine / vacuum cleaner hose etc).

I've found through trial and error that a sharp bend can cause significant backpressure. So can hoses that sit under the water level in the sump. Make sure the water falls through a little air before it hits the water surface / filter media in the sump.

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gday

my opinion is to use 15 mm pressure pipe as the return pipe from the sump to tanks.25 mm pipe leading down to the sump.pressure pipe is easier to use.on my setup i have a bit of clear hose leading from the pump to the bottom of the return pipe so i can see any problems(if i get one).

regards

chris

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Andy - There will be a couple of bends but I think I have the back pressure thing sussed. I was planning on using pretty big pipe on that run from tanks to sump (after chatting to Gav at the meeting) which should avoid the back pressure.

When the water gets to the sump it will go through a home made spray bar over the top of the media.

Chris - Thanks for the sizes. You're a plumber, is each size suitable for a certain volume per hour or something? I guess that each tank will have about 300 Lph coming entering and leaving it.

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Baz,

How are you getting the water from the pump to distribute evenly to each tank? I see you said the pump is supplying the water simultaneously to each tank. Once the water leaves the single outlet, what will be your branching method? I've pretty much worked in the water and plumbing industries all my working life and I know how hard it is to balance (uniform volume) to multiple outlet points from one supply.

glenn

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Hi Glenn

I am planning to have an inline tap on each branch to control the flow. I assume the tank furthest from the pump will need the tap open most, if not fully, and the tank closest to the pump will need the tap closed most. Obviously with the taps I can play around a bit until I am happy with the flow rates to each tank.

I tried to draw what I meant but it was crap.

I'm thinking I will have one main pipe running up the side of the rack from the sump. This will branch off above each row of tanks (2 rows) and take water along the top of the rows of tanks.

Above each tank will be a T, where the water goes through an inline tap and into the tank.

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Yep, got ya Baz, I was going to suggest a set of gate valves, one for each tank but your already going down that track thumb.gif

When the balancing day comes around that'll be a lot of fun LOL.gif

Will you be using the "close enough is good enough" method or are you going to measure flow from each outlet and get it as balanced as possible?

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Close enough is good enough for me.

As long as each tank gets a reasonable flow, and none of them are overflowing, I will be happy.

I'm sure it will take a lot of fiddling, but I assume it's one of those 'set and forget' things.

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Hi Glenn

I would agree with everything you have discussed and think you have it planned correctly. clap.gif My only comment is to run the entire system in pvc pressure pipe and glued fittings as compared to the flexible hose idea. wink.gif

After several months - maybe even years the flexible hoses will deteriorate and sag between the saddle fixings, causing uneven flow and possible air locks. ohmy.gif

I would suggest that the return overflow lines from each tank back to the sump be increased in size to 32mm. 25mm will not be big enough for the flow rate.

The inlet pipes to each of the tanks (after the in-line control valves) can be fitted easily with 15mm pvc pipes, capped on the ends and a series of holes drilled into the pipes forming spray bars. If you install these spray bars across the ends of the tanks they will give you a far better water flow throughout the tanks.

You will see the proper installations on Saturday. thumb.gif

HTH.

WAZ.

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Just curious. How strong do these pumps have to be that pump the water back into the tanks. and instead of using heaters in each tank can you put a few in the bottom of the sump and it heats the water buM it goes back to the tanks. Just curious at the moment im moving house and will be building a room for my fish and having a full blown tank room. But that aint for a few more months.

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baz,a good hardware store will stock 19mm clear flexible hose for the return to tank pipe.it connects to the black polypipe elbows and poly taps for the tank inlets.

also,its possible to join 19mm from the sump to 13 mm in clear flexible rubber/plastic for the inlets,if youd think using taps of 13mm is suitable for each tank inlet's water flow.

you could use poly pipe to return the water to the sump as a fitting is availabe [from the bulkheadfitting supplier-aquamail or aquasonic]to connect the bulkhead straight to 25mm poly.once again it depends on the pump's flowrate.im suggesting to merely consider the poly as a cost saving thing-it tends to limit [to sump]flowrate compared to 25mm pvc but im thinking youd not want to blast fry around the tanks anyway.if youd prefer to use the pvc itll be dearer but you can reuse it on larger tank systems later on if needed anyway.

using more than one inlet to the tanks you definitely need taps.i tried 3 tanks on a pumphose once and couldnt get their flows the same ever.once the water in the hose reaches its highest point and bends to the tanks,most of of the water falls [by gravity's force] out the lowest exit on the line rather than the first or last line.it became tricky until i got the taps

if your using a hole in the back of the tank you can add a pipe to the bottom of the tank where all muck actually sits.the exiting water will leave the tank up the pipe out the bulkhead to the sump from the bottom wastezone of the tank..drill a stop syphon hole above the water line and lots of holes around the bottom end of the pipe with the pipe touching the bottom to stop flow up the large diameter of the pipe.or you can also buy [from the bulkheadfitting supplier]as wwell a screen to screen fry out of the water-exiting pipe.

this method does a real good job of removing tank waste worth thinking about.all recirculating tank methods in aquaculture use the bottom of the water tank as the exit point for filtration,with a drillhole out of the water up the top to break the syphon result which would otherwise result.and the aquaculture mob sure do overfeed for growout and their fish poop a lot.

you could also put a small hole at waterlevel line to take a little of the '[oily]surface water to the sump,but this would take floatying flake food away the minute you put it in.i skip this bit.

the best part of setting a new rack up for me is thinking about it being better than the last one.ive run out of room at my house so i couldnt resist helping you plan yours. LOL.gif

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Waz - Thanks for the advice mate. Does this mean you are fine for Saturday? (no pm from you yet).

Stotto - The size of pump depends on the amount of water you want to push and at what head height. I'll be wanting to push around 3500 Lph, at a head height of 1.8m, and most pumps will have a chart on the side of the box showing what volume they will do at various head heights.

I have a couple of old pumps here which were too noisy for the tank in the lounge room but they wont be too noisy out here, so I will try these first since I already have them, and then buy a bigger pump if they do not do the job.

Yes, one of the big advantages of a sump is that you can put heaters and thermometres and other junk in there, leaving your tank free of hardware. Running 12 tanks like this I would normally need to buy 12 heaters. However with this proposed setup I will only need 1 or 2 heaters in the sump to heat all the tanks.

Nannat - Thanks for the reply. I have considered using more than 1 inlet to the tanks but figured with small tanks like this I should be able to get enough circulation with just 1.

I also thought about the bottom pickup idea you mentioned, but dislike the fact that fry will all be hiding behind this pipe when I try to catch them. Catching and bagging fish is one of my least favourite jobs so I like to make it as easy as possible.

I want to use something over the outlet to keep fry out of the filter, and you have suggested fly screen. Do you think fly screen will restrict water flow at all? I am a bit paranoid about the outlet becoming blocked and overflowing the tank.

I think you can buy some stuff which is a bit bigger than fly screen from some lfs, they use it in the industry for dividing tanks etc I think.

I agree with you, planning it all is fun. I have been planning this for a while now and am determined to get it right in my head before I go ahead. I'm pretty much at the stage where I can order the tanks now so it's getting exciting smile.gif

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fly screen restricts the flow a fair bit but is the only thing that will hold week old fry back.theyd hardly leave the bottom tho.gutterguard is siliconed over outlets in some of my tanks for the larger fry.i have 2 sizes of gutterguard.

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Jim - No worries mate, will let you all know what it cost me from start to finish once it is done.

Nannat - good point about the new fry, they wont be anywhere near the plumbing probably.

Craig Thompson has sent me some ideas via pm, and one of his ideas is to have the holes drilled a little lower than I had intended, and use an elbow inside the tank, turned upwards like a skimmer, to determine the water level in the tank. I like the sound of this as it becomes adjustable. I guess I could use some gutterguard or similar on these still, to stop and adventurous fish going down into the pipes and getting stuck.

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