One Cubic Meter of Ocean

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by zum14

Ok, so i see that it. wait. no. ok well, no thats not right either. ok wow if this is basic plumbing, wow. Im very impressed at the complexity and the way things seem to be well organized and thought out. maybe a simpler drawing if you ever get around to it might help (system broken apart view). might be one of those ones when you see it in action everything just seems to make sense. Im no engineer, just a mechanic. sweet shots of the fish as well. very impressive. Really like the bar layout too. Nice work.

Yeah that layout isn't self explanatory, doesn't even show pumps. I'll do my best with just some iphone pics rather than drawing up a sketch.

There's essentially two pumping systems:

First is the high flow system from the frag tank. This uses 2 waveline DC10000 in parallel.



There's a removable slotted gate.


The pumps have check valves so that if one is off it doesn't back flow through the other one, ball valves really just for maintenance so you don't have to drain the line if you removed the pumps.



That line from the two pumps runs straight to the display tank.



This provides most of the circulation in the tank, there are three branches that extend down into the tank, each has multiple outputs.



From the display the high water volume overflows into the overflow box. In there I have two large standpipes. There's two extra plugged bulkheads from a previous revision. I'll likely use one as emergency back up overflow.



The standpipes feed back into the frag tank, there are two lines although one is hard to see here. One line for each side of the frag tank.



The frag tank is essentially inline with the two waveline pumps, so it benefits from the same amount of flow they give the display. The original idea was not to have standpipes in the overflow, but rather install the frag tank high enough so it's water level is basically at the same height as the overflow box water level. Unfortunately I was limited to two 1.5" lines so I could run both pumps at full power unless I lowered the frag tank 4 inches and installed standpipes to prevent the overflow box from draining too much, the overflow box is huge so this was an issue.


The second pumping system is for the actual sump, basically just like a typical setup except I pump into the frag tank and not the display.



The line from the pump runs into the other pumping vicinity so that the water from the sump is forced to through the wavelines and to the display.



Excess water in the frag tank simply overflows into an overflow box that leads to the sump below.





While it sounds complicated as I explain it, it's actually very simple.

[sphelps]

Also the line that feeds up towards the ceiling is from the lower RD return pump, it will later feed a small tank on the floor above, hopefully it makes it.

The line below the bottom sump is just a drain line that feeds to a sink drain. There's a connected overflow in the bottom sump encase the level ever gets too high for some reason. Also a manual drain for water changes and what not. One of the advantages of this system is I can shut off lower sump while the frag tank and display are unaffected. I can then drain and clean the sump, fill it up, heat the water and add salt before activating it again.

[mseepman]

All I have to say it "wow!" I thought that I had planned things out...but this puts me to shame. Nicely setup and kudos on all the DIY stuff you have going on there. It looks mighty professional.

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by sphelps

is that a sps frag on your cap?


wicked job is all i can say looks awesome, love the simplicity

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by reefwars

is that a sps frag on your cap?


wicked job is all i can say looks awesome, love the simplicity

It's in the tank. Thanks bud.

[sphelps]

A little side project my wife and I have been working on is the old making a human thing, although I'm sure she'll say she's doing all the work

Anyways, had a mural painted in the nursery and thought I'd share, I sure hope new baby likes fish as much as me

[lastlight]

that turned out hella sweet. congrats again!

[zum14]

Actually that cleared a lot up for me. Very well thought out. That mural is impressive, then I saw the plug and got a feel for the scale. wow. very cool.

[Ginu]

That is very cool.

[sphelps]

Thanks. Yeah it's a full wall, 10 feet x 9 feet.