Plumbing--need your help

[sharuq1]

Ok, so I made a couple crappy diagrams of what I could use to do the plumbing. Please tell me if it would work, or why it wouldn't and what would work. I am not going to be drilling any more holes in the tank or adding an overflow box.

Edit: bahhhhh I guess I am making an overflow box

It is just the tank with 2 holes (one is higher than the other, not sure why). What size pipes should I be using? I have a couple 1" ball valves at home...I think they are one inch anyway... I believe the bulkheads are also one inch, but cannot find the measuring tape, lol. For the sump pump we have an oceanrunner 3500

[Delphinus]

The blue lines are your overflow lines? Ok, it's not going to work (sorry). You need to add an overflow box over the holes.

Problem #1 - in a power failure, water will drain to the lowest point - the lower of the two holes. That's a lot of water volume draining into your sump - unless your sump has enough "empty capacity" it will spill onto your floor.

Problem #2 - you'll never get water level control in the main tank. Ie., you'll likely only get a couple inches at best of water pushing above the holes. You probably want water up near the top of the tank.

My suggestion - get some glass pieces cut and silicone them in over the holes to make internal overflow boxes. Here's what I mean (this is the tank journal thread of my 65G FW tank, it shows the overflow box idea that I'm suggesting might work well for you. The glass cost was minimal - something like $15 IIRC):
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=28505

[sharuq1]

Well I was thinking of having upturned pipes to take care of that problem so it would just skim the surface of the water, like the tanks at Golds. would it work then?

[Delphinus]

Oh. ... Yeah Ok that will work fine then..

[mark]

Depends on the amount of return flow but I'd be concerned about noise with just an upturned pipe (again flow, but wondering if a Herbie would work with two upturned pipes one just a little higher than the other?).

Horizontal drains seem interesting also.

[Delphinus]

That's true about the noise. I have a tank with just a standpipe and it gurgles. That's why I suggested the overflow box. The horizontal drain idea looks pretty neat, thanks for the link.

[sharuq1]

We don't really spend much time in the living room, so noise isn't a huge issue. I would like it as quiet as I can get it, but a bit of noise is ok. A huge flushing gurgle all the time...not so ok, lol.

Sooo...looks like my idea for the upturned pipe deals might work. Would I be better off doing it like in #1 or #2? I know the advantage of having two lines incase one gets clogged, but it is simpler to do just the one. Opinions?

Does anyone know how they managed to get the upturned pipe overflows at Golds as quiet as they are? Just adjusting or bigger pipes or...??

Having seen your post Tony I will consider the overflow idea. I am just scared to do that sort of thing. I also considered the horizontal overflow prior to this but decided it was just too fugly for the living room, despite being a good idea.

Anyone else have any comments on how I should change it to make it better? Please say so

[dsaundry]

I don't want to sound too dumb but shouldn't your S/W top up be for F/W?? Or is that for when you do a water change only?

If you are constantly topping with s/w it will look like the dead sea.
I may be blind but on your ato I didnt see the plumbing from what I assume will be a rodi unit..

[sharuq1]

Sorry I just had to chuckle as I imagined trying to explain that to my fiance. "Yeah...thought I should top up with salt...seemed like a good idea at the time...um..is that why it's all dead?"

The sw thingie is just for WC's, the thing I marked ATP will be a container that I will fill by hand (too far away from RO/DI unit) with the RO for topping up....assuming I can figure out how to work Tunze ato (I think that is what it is ) thingie I found in some stuff that came with some other stuff I bought. My bucket lugging won't be quite done, sadly, hehe