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Plumbing Feed ATS from drain pipe

Discussion in 'General Aquarium Discussion' started by sabbath, Sep 15, 2014.

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  1. sabbath

    sabbath Member Trusted Member Customer

    Hi guys

    I'm looking to do a reset on my 180g. I'm going to set it up as a FO minimum to no live rock.

    Filtration is looking to be a
    -3.5 gallon Wet/Dry trickle filter
    -L4 ATS
    -L2 ATS
    -Skimmer
    -Carbon and GFO as needed

    I'm wondering right now about plumbing the drains. Would you pipe right into any of the filters and if so how?

    Oh I have
    -2 drains out of my 180g right now.
    -1 inlet on the Wet/Dry. (I could drill for a second)





    Sent from my mobile

    Don
     
    Last edited: Sep 15, 2014
  2. Turbo

    Turbo Does not really look like Johnny Carson Staff Member Site Owner Multiple Units! Customer

    I recall a discussion thread somewhere started by a pet store that had minimal rock in the tanks (makes it easier to catch fish) and it made it difficult to maintain good water parameters. I think the exclusion of live rock from the system completely might cause issues. Do you have room in the sump for a bunch of LR? At least then you will have that surface area to help along with the wet/dry.

    As for being able to run the filtration off the drains, this is fine as long as you have adequate overflow protection (protecting your tank from overflowing, not protection on the overflow). Your drains should be designed such that if one clogs 100%, the other can take the full flow of the return pump. Otherwise, you might get into a situation where one drain by itself can't keep up, but the pump might still get enough water to the tank before it starts sucking air to overflow it. This can be mitigated by controlling the pump reservoir chamber also, but it's less reliable in the worst-case scenario where your top-off goes wild and then the blockage happens.

    But ideally, you could plumb one drain into both scrubbers (splitting the flow, somehow) and then have the scrubbers drain into the wet/dry (would need a filter sock or sponge filter) and then the flow continues on to the skimmer. GFO/carbon reactor should probably be on it's own pump but that's pretty small.
     
  3. sabbath

    sabbath Member Trusted Member Customer

    I Do have room and a lot of LR that I'm cooking right now with my L2. Maybe that would be a good idea to add some in the sump. This would also help if I have a power outage. Because the Wet/Dry will start to be more of a Dry.

    I have 2 drain's coming from my Glass Hole overflow and It is rated for 1500GPH total. But I have never ran it over 500 GPH. Hmmm Maybe 1 drain to each ATS. Maybe go with your high flow kits?

    Would slowing 1 drain down while another is set higher, be hard to balance and maintain the flow rates?
     
  4. Turbo

    Turbo Does not really look like Johnny Carson Staff Member Site Owner Multiple Units! Customer

    I was thinking that you had dual overflows or something, I forgot about how yours was set up.

    If you have dual drains and a single overflow box, then what I would do is leave one drain as your full-capacity backup (able to handle 100% of flow) and then try to plumb everything into the primary drain.

    I would go with the high flow mods for the bottom/side drains on both the L2 and L4 just because it's better overall for flow and clog protection. 500 GPH would be good to plumb directly into the L4, then maybe have the L2 on a dedicated pump. Unless you want to try upping the return pump flow rate and feeding both off the one drain, that might be tricky to balance.
     
  5. sabbath

    sabbath Member Trusted Member Customer

    If one of the drains goes to the L4 and the other is going directly and submersed to the sump. Wouldn't the submersed one want to run faster, As it would be in a siphon
     
  6. Turbo

    Turbo Does not really look like Johnny Carson Staff Member Site Owner Multiple Units! Customer

    I'm saying to run all of it of one drain and have the other be the spare = zero flow. Not sure you would be able to do this though now that I think about it, there's no way to control the flow into one of those unless you have area inside the overflow box for an up-turned elbow so that it only flows if your water level inside the overflow box gets too high.
     

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