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sump or not to sump


beachy

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Instead of just drilling a hole, see if you can find some of the plastic air flow valves...Ummm...Look like a T with an inlet on on end, a screwy bit on the other and another inlet on the other side, cost like a buck. Or something similar to control the amount of air going in. Lets you just turn the screw to adjust the height of the water in the overflow. That's what I have on mine. Might need to drill two holes, one for the valve and another as kind of a coarse adjustment otherwise the valve, at least in my case, doesn't flow enough air on its own wide open.

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cool thanks ira, ill look into it, i tried the overflow tonite, just by pouring buckets into it, no leaks but the overflow did fill rite up to the top. I was pouring quite fast though, so whether it will work i dont know, it sure looks good.

I'm looking at pumping around 2000 - 2500 ltrs hr i guess il find out when i get it running.

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Yay got the tank filled today and am running the trickle filter off my fluval 404, just until i get a pump. The overflow and durso standpipe seem to handle the fluval wich does prob around 1000-1300 ltrs hr. Before i filled the tank i put the hose into the overflow and turned it on to full, it seemed to handle that as well, i dont know how many ltrs an hr my hose can flow but its definately more than my fluval.

Will get hold of my bro's digi and post some pics in the members tanks as soon as i can :D

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hey guys one last question to all, im looking at getting a laguna power jet 2000, i think it does 3000 -3500 ltrs an hr, i want to buy it cause i will be getting it cheap, as ive said my overflow and durso stand pipe is 25mm will this handle the flow or am i pushing it? any help would be appreciated. :)

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The 25mm hole will be fine.

One thing I noticed is you said the overflow and durso is 25mm. Your Durso must be LARGER than the hole through the bottom of the tank, or it won't work.

How about some photos so we can understand how its all working.

Pie

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hey pies the hole through the tank is smaller than the stand pipe by about 3-5mm i have my fluval 404 running it at the mo and it is working good,

once the pipe goes through the tank it does a 90 dg turn goes along another 5" then another 90 dg turn into the trickle tower, this was the only way i could do it because the sump and trickle are to tall for under my tank, the only noise i get is the water hitting the 90 dg turn once it goes through the tank wich im not bothered about.

Does this sound ok cause i prob dont need to run that much though the tank i can always go for a smaller pump, im getting a good deal on the pj 2000 and once ive used it i cant take it back if its to much.

I will try to post picks asap

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the fitting i have under the tank is the same as the 25mm ones on chimeras thread pg 5 new tank,sump room etc. That is were the hole size differencs is, looking at it, its prob only 2-3mm difference but it seems to be working ok :)

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o.k so the way i had my stand pipe was not good enough to handle :oops: , so ive ripped it out and have re-done it with 32mm pipe, went to mitre 10 mega and found the perfect hansen fitting to go through the tank. The stand pipe now goes from 32mm down to a 25mm hole not to sure if i should make the pipes underneath 35mm or 25mm, i do know that i am gonna try to get my trickle tower lowered into my sump a bit more so that i can use a 45dg bend instead of a 90dg, i think thats where my problems were.

Chears to all that have repllied, appreciated :D

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Beachy - The DURSO needs to be larger than the hole and the rest of the plumbing. So your example of a 32mm DURSO and 25mm HANSEN hole and plumbing is perfect, I have this exact setup myself.

Remeber to drill a hole through the end cap of the durso, this helps break the syphone and make sure gravity is the only thing invloved.

You comment about replacing the 90 with a 45. It probably won't make any difference. Check with Chimera as he has a calculator that works this sort of thing out, but its probably not going to make any difference. I'd do it myself but am mathmatically retarded.

Good luck, glad its all working out!

Pie

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Hey pies, thanks, will go with the 25mm returnpipe, the reason i thought about binning the 90dg bend is because my pipes underneath will be completely horizontal, and on the durso web site they warn you away from horizontal pipes due to getting a fluctuation affect on the water level wich is what was happening, the whole system has now been opened rite up though. I might contact chimera cause if i dont have to mod my trickle and sump that will save a lot of hastles. cheers

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Yay i finally have every thing running like clockwork, durso stand pipe works well. I have modified the sump to accomidate the 45dg bends.

I have 2500 ltrs hr running through the tank and it handles well, i could prob run heaps more,ive worked it out that my tank will be turning over about 6 times an hr. Once again thanks to all for your input, thanks pies for your info on the durso standpipe, i am very pleased how its all turned out.

Will edit my tank pics as soon as i can, cheers :D:D:D:D

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the reason i thought about binning the 90dg bend is because my pipes underneath will be completely horizontal, and on the durso web site they warn you away from horizontal pipes due to getting a fluctuation affect on the water level which is what was happening, the whole system has now been opened rite up though. I might contact chimera cause if i dont have to mod my trickle and sump that will save a lot of hastles.

The horizontal pipe would only be an issue if you had a short overflow and standpipe. Yes it will effect the water level in the overflow but not enough to worry about IMO. There is friction loss in 90deg bends but it's so negligible (more so than most think) that it will make a very small difference on flow rate (as opposed to a 45deg) All you need to do is change the hole size in the top of the durso to get the right water level (bigger hole means water will sit higher, smaller hole water will sit lower) If you find the water fluctuates up and down in the overflow, it's generally because the water cant escape into the sump fast enough (typically an issue with smaller or short lengthed pipes I would imagine?) Try putting a 45 deg elbow on the end of the pipe that goes into the sump so it sits just under the water or even the lip of the pipe slightly above the water surface.

You could still get alot more flow through that size pipe - the only thing to watch for is the water level in the tank will rise by a few mm.

I've found fluid dynamics to be a very interesting subject - something I thought I'd never learn about doing my tank!!!

Anyways sounds like you've sussed it, nice work!

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Thanks chimera,i have a very short return to the sump, so ithink thats where the 90deg bends were no good,too restrictive, as soon as the water goes through the tank fitting it hit a 90deg went along 5" then another 90deg into the sump, now after the tank fitting i have a 45deg then a straight 25mm pipe into the sump, it works much better. cheers

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  • 2 months later...

i was reading that the hole drilled in your tank for the overflow is better to be in the top of the tank as it means reduced risk of flooding. if there is a power outage, the pump will stop, so there won't be return of water into the main tank. then the water level in the main tank will fall below the level of the overflow, so no water will flow into the sump, and no flood! the sump will simply stop working, and the two tanks will keep their water levels constant until the power comes on again.

check out this website:

http://saltaquarium.about.com/gi/dynami ... rflow.html

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hi there

am keen on a sump for my new large tank still being made, but need help! am not very good on DIY, and am not sure of best size of sump tank. any pre-made sump tanks available? think i might need a 400L sump tank, which hopefully will fit under stand. any ideas? filters are very expensive when you have tanks this size.

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What size tank are you getting made,and fish are you keeping? pies is very helpfull with this sort of thing, he has helped me with my sump. :hail:

Check out some of his thread in the salt water section, might help a bit, or maybe pm him.

:D

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