Hey folks,
Hoping some creative types can come along with suggestions on what to do with this fish-only acrylic tank I inherited. Since it was free it kind of negates the notion of just junking it and buying a replacement. Besides, it's a nice tank and hopefully can be retrofitted for modern reef keeping.
I have a 75gl reef that's been going for 3 years and is a great success. I built an overflow box on it, cut a weir across the top of the back of the tank, and setup a Herbie/BeanAnimal drain system on it and of course it works perfectly. So I have a full and complete understanding of how this all works.
Now, the new tank...
My neighbor sets out this 112gl acrylic (60x18x24H) to sell and I ended up getting it for free. Big deal right? LOL. It was all scratched to rat$hit and I have wet sanded and polished the front, inside and out, and it's beautiful. I'm now thinking maybe I can use this thing after all.
And my question today - this stupid thing has a 1" BH in each corner drainbox. What in god's name am I gonna do with that? I want to run about 800gph thru the sump and there's no way those little drains are gonna keep up, and if they do it's gonna be noisy and bubbly in my sump. There are two other 1" bulkheads in the back, they look like they are either returns or for a closed loop system. I could use one for an emergency overflow/drain.
These are my possible solutions. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give me a better option!! confused1
1. put durso stand pipes in and run it
2. re-drill for 1-1/2" durso drain pipes, deal with the noise. Join them and install a ballvalve to slow the flow down?
3. Connect the two boxes with an acrylic tube
4. Build a weir across the top to join them, setup the two drains beananimal style. Or re-drill the back for bean style drains. This would leave stagnate water in the drain towers though.
5. Break them both out and start over (really don't want to do this, it will make a mess out of the tank)
What else can I do? I'm sure one standpipe on full siphon would handle the flow, but then the other box with the open standpipe would get stagnate.
What about #3? I could weld in a piece of 2" diameter acrylic tube or pvc so they would both flow water. I'm just not sure one of them on siphon would pull from the other box. I could use one of the other bulkheads on the tank back as an emergency if I did this, the other for a return.
Whatever I choose, I can set it up in the garage and test it. I'm thinking mag9.5 or one of Chad's jabao pumps. I can't go too high as I need to plumb a chiller inline there on the return. Will supplement flow in the tank with a couple of 1000-1250 gph powerheads.
Hoping some creative types can come along with suggestions on what to do with this fish-only acrylic tank I inherited. Since it was free it kind of negates the notion of just junking it and buying a replacement. Besides, it's a nice tank and hopefully can be retrofitted for modern reef keeping.
I have a 75gl reef that's been going for 3 years and is a great success. I built an overflow box on it, cut a weir across the top of the back of the tank, and setup a Herbie/BeanAnimal drain system on it and of course it works perfectly. So I have a full and complete understanding of how this all works.
Now, the new tank...
My neighbor sets out this 112gl acrylic (60x18x24H) to sell and I ended up getting it for free. Big deal right? LOL. It was all scratched to rat$hit and I have wet sanded and polished the front, inside and out, and it's beautiful. I'm now thinking maybe I can use this thing after all.
And my question today - this stupid thing has a 1" BH in each corner drainbox. What in god's name am I gonna do with that? I want to run about 800gph thru the sump and there's no way those little drains are gonna keep up, and if they do it's gonna be noisy and bubbly in my sump. There are two other 1" bulkheads in the back, they look like they are either returns or for a closed loop system. I could use one for an emergency overflow/drain.
These are my possible solutions. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give me a better option!! confused1
1. put durso stand pipes in and run it
2. re-drill for 1-1/2" durso drain pipes, deal with the noise. Join them and install a ballvalve to slow the flow down?
3. Connect the two boxes with an acrylic tube
4. Build a weir across the top to join them, setup the two drains beananimal style. Or re-drill the back for bean style drains. This would leave stagnate water in the drain towers though.
5. Break them both out and start over (really don't want to do this, it will make a mess out of the tank)
What else can I do? I'm sure one standpipe on full siphon would handle the flow, but then the other box with the open standpipe would get stagnate.
What about #3? I could weld in a piece of 2" diameter acrylic tube or pvc so they would both flow water. I'm just not sure one of them on siphon would pull from the other box. I could use one of the other bulkheads on the tank back as an emergency if I did this, the other for a return.
Whatever I choose, I can set it up in the garage and test it. I'm thinking mag9.5 or one of Chad's jabao pumps. I can't go too high as I need to plumb a chiller inline there on the return. Will supplement flow in the tank with a couple of 1000-1250 gph powerheads.
