Replumb 150 DD

[Hozer]

Victoss and Kbennett would u beable to show me the under tank plumbing you have? do both the siphons tie into eachother with a valve to equalize? and which line shoudl i use for full siphon and which one for emerg/trickle? 1" or 1.5" (in overflow boxes).. i have a new MAG 18 return pump i will be plumbing and upsizing it from a 3/4 to a 1" return line. and should i have 2 spots for return (each end) or 1 in the middle? 72"x18x29

 

[KBennett]

I'll take a pic tonight.  Each of my siphons has a ball valve.  You need to be able to control them individually.  The siphon should be the small one.  I'm not sure about yours, but both holes in each overflow are the same size.  The durso goes through a reducer before it goes through the bulk head.

 

[Hozer]

Would it be ok to do a durso and an emerg in each overflow? Instead of that straight pipe siphon?

 

[spyd]

You could do just a straight durso on each side. The only issue for you will be the noise. A durso pipe pulls in a lot of air and you will definitely hear it. It's not crazy loud but definitely not silent either.

 

[KBennett]

Would it be ok to do a durso and an emerg in each overflow? Instead of that straight pipe siphon?

I don't know why you'd do that.  With 2 overflows, you don't need and emergency drain. 

You could then bring the return up the overflow.  That's how I had mine at first.  It was way too loud.

 

[KBennett]

My plumbing is a little messy, but it gets the job done.





Here you can see my return.  It tees out to each side one the other side of the hole.

 

[Victoss]

Here's under my stand, each siphon drains separately to the sump with a ball valve on each. My return is what has a gate valve for control with a tee that goes to my refugium (tiny 1/2 inch pipe at the back). Changing the flow to the refugium would change my balance so that never gets changed. With a manifold feeding reactors you would never be able to hold a balance with the drain and return (If utilizing a full siphon system, not durso).

The small 3/4 holes are for my siphons and the 1 inch holes are the return and emergency. On the left side were there is an emergency and a siphon the emergency has a trickle to help with the variations in flow. The right side is always at the level of the teeth (which is slightly below the height of the tank water due to flow restriction through the overflow teeth so there is still surface skimming).

 

[Hozer]

Thanks that picture is exactly what i was looking for... so you have a reutn comming out of the right overflow with a full siphon.. and a full siphon and emerg on the left if i am seeing that correctly. i think that may be they way i go also.

 

[Hozer]

thanks you both of you for the pictures it has helped a lot! ill let you know how i do after the job is complete!

 

[KBennett]

Be sure to take pictures!

 

[Victoss]

Thanks that picture is exactly what i was looking for... so you have a reutn comming out of the right overflow with a full siphon.. and a full siphon and emerg on the left if i am seeing that correctly. i think that may be they way i go also.

Yep that's right, not sure exactly why but there appears to be a tiny buffer zone on the right overflow (return and siphon) where the water level won't change in the box and always seems to stay right at the bottom of the teeth, I believe this is because there is a tiny overlap where the 2 levels of water meet even though one still remains higher allowing water to flow slower while maintaining a surface skim (waterfall) above the lower flow.

My only regret so far is not using flex hose for the return pump, but it hasn't bothered me yet just something that I know I probably should have done.

 

[Hozer]

would the flex hose be for making the return pump quieter??

 

[Hozer]

oh another thing.. i don't know 100% if my overflows are completely sealed.. so my overflow box may stay the same height as my entire DT. that would case it to be harder to do full siphons correct??

 

[Victoss]

It wouldn't affect the siphons because all they need is a few inches of water above them but it would make it a bit harder to maintain a surface skim, where water falls into the overflow instead of water just flowing to the overflows. However the siphons are pretty quick so if it's only a tiny trickle into the overflows you may not have any problems.

The bigger (very important) problem is that your whole tank will drain to the level of the siphons instead of just the 2 overflow boxes and over a large area of the whole tank that is a ton of water, when you turn off your return (or power goes out) all the water in your tank down to the siphons will drain.

 

[KBennett]

Any leaks in your overflow should not be bad enough to make a difference to the water level in the overflow.

However, you need to get those sealed.  Otherwise, when the power goes out your tank will drain too far and most likely flood your sump.
The entire tank level will go down to the level of your siphon, or worse, if you just push fitted them into the bulkhead, it will drain to the bulkhead, which is really bad if they are on the bottom of the tank.

Damn.  Victoss beat me too it...

 

[Hozer]

yes they are push fitted into the bulkhead.. and yeah thats why i was worried about doing the full siphons cause my overflows leak i believe... is there anyway of sealing the overflow while there is water in there?

 

[KBennett]

You should do a test - take out all the piping in the overflows and shut your return off (assuming you have room in your sump to house the water).  Let it dry a bit and see where and how bad the leak is.  Your tank will be fine for a few hours with just your circulation pumps (assuming you have some).  If it is only a slight drip, you may be fine.  If not, you may want to do something about it.  I would advise against trying to seal your piping into your bulkheads.  It is handy to be able to take them out.

If the leak is slight enough, you may be able to get away with wrapping the ends of your piping in teflon tape before pushing them into the bulkhead.  If you can get it such that it takes a very long time to drain, then you'll have more time to manually take water out of your sump in the case of a power outage.

 

[Hozer]

yeah the only thing i am kinda nervous about ismy return lines.. im not sure if they are glued in or not

 

[Hozer]

thats why i was also wondering if i could do durso's instead of full siphons so that when the durso loses its suction the water level can stay higher than if i were to run a full siphon