11GTCS Posted March 28, 2012 Author Share Posted March 28, 2012 The key is design of the height of the lowest intake or return. If he has a 20 gallon sump, you make sure you can only drain out less than 20 gallons of the main tank Yeah that's what I mean. If I put checks on the returns then they are out of the equation in most normal occasions and wouldn't be much lower if at all anyway, which normal factor of safety of like 2-3 would take care of. And since tank is designed to regularly drain to lowest intake, we are good there. Link to comment
Onebaldman Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Cintax's comment made me think, have you ever thought about doing a three stage system? Holding tank above the display tank, the display tank, and then the sump? You would have a pump in the holding tank that would slowly pump water out of the display tank. Then, you would cut power to that pump and the siphon would take effect...slowly adding water back to the tank? I'm talking small pump in the holding tank...really small... You could even do two float switches. One to turn the pump on at high tide, one to turn the pump off at low tide...basically the opposite of an ATO Link to comment
11GTCS Posted March 28, 2012 Author Share Posted March 28, 2012 Cintax's comment made me think, have you ever thought about doing a three stage system? Holding tank above the display tank, the display tank, and then the sump? You would have a pump in the holding tank that would slowly pump water out of the display tank. Then, you would cut power to that pump and the siphon would take effect...slowly adding water back to the tank? I'm talking small pump in the holding tank...really small... I could do that but I'm in a dorm room so the less building I have to do to add stuff above the tank the better. I'd still need the same setup down below too, just one less pump down there and one more up top. Link to comment
Onebaldman Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 I could do that but I'm in a dorm room so the less building I have to do to add stuff above the tank the better. I'd still need the same setup down below too, just one less pump down there and one more up top. Well, with that setup, I could get you a plumbing return that consists of only one pipe. So you are talking about two pumps, one return... ...and there someone goes making a new porn video. Link to comment
11GTCS Posted March 28, 2012 Author Share Posted March 28, 2012 Well, with that setup, I could get you a plumbing return that consists of only one pipe. So you are talking about two pumps, one return... ...and there someone goes making a new porn video. That's true. I don't know Though that would make the construction of the tank more expensive as I'd have to integrate that into the tank. and It would lower visual appeal. Link to comment
duoc9119 Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 I think i figured out the high tide at a slow rate! You need the second pump to be significantly slower than the first! Say you have a 250gph pump for circulation. Then you can use a pump rated at 30gph or something low that will slowly pump water into the display and raising the water level! Link to comment
11GTCS Posted March 28, 2012 Author Share Posted March 28, 2012 I think i figured out the high tide at a slow rate! You need the second pump to be significantly slower than the first! Say you have a 250gph pump for circulation. Then you can use a pump rated at 30gph or something low that will slowly pump water into the display and raising the water level! Yeah that's what I'm figuring on doing. It seems the cheapest and cleanest way to do it and still keep it in the sump. Link to comment
11GTCS Posted March 29, 2012 Author Share Posted March 29, 2012 Update! Here is what we have cooked up so far for work. Yay AutoCAD Tank_Side_View.bmp Link to comment
duoc9119 Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 Looks pretty sweet! Seems solid from what I can see. Link to comment
Cintax Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 Well, as I mentioned above, since the lowest drain would be at low tide setting, it would simply drain at a slightly higher than normal rate until it hit low tide. The place I would put check valves would be on return lines, just because I don't want to back feed the pumps, and because one of those lines may be lower than drains depending on how the design works out. My intention was to put them on the pump side and not the drain. The AutoCAD drawing looks awesome. Link to comment
11GTCS Posted March 29, 2012 Author Share Posted March 29, 2012 My intention was to put them on the pump side and not the drain. The AutoCAD drawing looks awesome. Thanks! We will see how that works out. Haha gotta love when reef keeping makes me be a good engineer and go to the CAD cluster. Link to comment
Onebaldman Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 How are you planning for your overflow to work? That might sound like a stupid question, but I can't picture it with your drawing. Link to comment
11GTCS Posted March 29, 2012 Author Share Posted March 29, 2012 How are you planning for your overflow to work? That might sound like a stupid question, but I can't picture it with your drawing. The overflow will be a two hole two pump open design discussed earlier. Link to comment
11GTCS Posted March 30, 2012 Author Share Posted March 30, 2012 Got the quote! This is super exciting. The price was very reasonable, and I'll be doing the tank in 3/8" glass. I'll likely be having him do the whole thing with sump. Link to comment
duoc9119 Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 That's awesome! When is the estimated delivery? Going to be a sweet build Link to comment
11GTCS Posted March 30, 2012 Author Share Posted March 30, 2012 That's awesome! When is the estimated delivery? Going to be a sweet build Yeah it is! First one I've heard of with both ideas of step down and tides in one tank. Should be fun. We haven't set a delivery yet because a.) I may be heading out that way anyway this summer and it would be tons cheaper to pick it up myself. and b.) We are still discussing sump ideas and whether or not he will build the sump and put bulkheads on ect or if I will do it. Link to comment
duoc9119 Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Yeah the step down tank is pretty awesome! I think there was a similar style on Reef Builders but did not have the high/low tide. I think it was in the 300+ gallonage, very impressive. Thought about trying it on a nano-size, but having it made would've been costly. Link to comment
11GTCS Posted March 30, 2012 Author Share Posted March 30, 2012 3807112[/url]']Yeah the step down tank is pretty awesome! I think there was a similar style on Reef Builders but did not have the high/low tide. I think it was in the 300+ gallonage, very impressive. Thought about trying it on a nano-size, but having it made would've been costly. I bet! And surprsingly not. I think it won't cost me more than a bio cube 14 to do this setup and the volume is the same. That would require a homemmade sump but that's easy enough. Link to comment
mbonus Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 Summer? We can't wait for summer! jk, but this looks to be a really cool design! Link to comment
boxboy Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 I wanna see this come to life sooooo bad. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.