Help me plumb my 4x 50g low boi frag rack

[ChRoMiS0108]

Hi guys !

I am building a 4x 50g low boi frag rack and I am stuck at the plumbing step.
I honestly do not know what to do here. I have been out of the hobby for quite some time and wondering if there are better ways of doing things now.

Obviously I am looking at drilling the tanks and getting a overflow box for every one of them but even there, I am not sure where to start.
I really like the look of the XAqua INOUT overflow, its really minimalist and non intrusive once in the tank. 
i am wondering if it will drain enough water for a 50g as it looks quite small. 

overflows seem quite expensive aswell, the eshopps ones are like 200$ here in canada, they seem quite easy to make no? has anyone got DIY plans for something like that?

also for the piping, I am thinking hard piping. 
The 4 tanks will be one on top of the other. 
I am wondering what is the best position for the pvc tubes etc.
should i connect all overflows into one big tube ? 
HOw would you guys plumb a system like this? 

Looking forward to read your insight guys ! 

[DaJMasta]

There are a lot of ways to do it, but I'd encourage you to look at some video/writeups of plumbing done for fish room/store racks, because with four of the same tank, it will likely be more akin to that.

 

You don't need an overflow box, you can do just fine with a hole in the back with a short bit of PVC and an elbow (if it faces up, you surface skim and that height is your water line, if it faces down, you can get a sort of durso style and the water height will be just above the interior diameter of the PVC in the bulkhead.  They don't look as nice, but generally when you've got a whole bunch of tanks in a system you're designing for functionality and not as a set of displays that need every bit of plumbing outside the tank.  You can also get surface skimming attachments that look like overflow boxes that can plug directly into a bulkhead.  Provided your bottom glass isn't tempered, you can even drill the bottom of the tank and just have a straight length of PVC coming up that sets the water height.

 

Hard lines are generally going to be more durable and permanent, but don't forget to include valves to include flow and unions for cleaning and ease of assembly.  Supporting the pipes is going to be important as well, as all the weight/twisting of the plumbing is not something you want trying to bend your glass through its only point of contact - the bulkhead.  You can plumb return or drain lines into each other, but remember the tubing has to get bigger as they join or you will be effectively restricting the flow of them.  It is possible to plumb them down single levels and just pump in the return water from the top, but then you can run into heating issues as the water in the second from bottom tank has to go through two other tanks (gradually cooling off) before getting there, so you need more flow through the system to maintain reasonable temperatures.  If you have them plumbed serially, a blockage in one can cause an issue in all of them, and you need to shut everything down to do any maintenance.  While it involves more pipes and complexity, the more versatile approach would be a valve and input line into every tank from a central return pump (or individual pumps per level), and then an individual drain from each level, which either can all individually dump into the sump or which can be combined on their way down.

 

 

Another probably important step is to reassess if you can actually have four tanks on top of each other.  With each tank, you also need space to work in them (putting in rockwork, catching a fish, moving a coral colony, etc.), plus you need space for your lighting at an appropriate height.  Starting at the floor and with a bare minimum of working height (maybe 4", which really is too short but can be made to work), plus the thickness of the shelves, plus the height of the tanks is probably going to be over your head.  I've recently built a system with 3 10G standard tanks vertically, and with about 5 inches of clearance over the sump and  about 7 inches of clearance over the working mid level, the topmost tank is already at chin height, meaning I can only work in it with my arm already above my head.  If you're going to stack them, I would strongly suggest doing two tall, maybe with a shallow sump under everything.

[ChRoMiS0108]

Yes I am trying to find some info on commercial systems but not many plumbing vids out there for that. if you have any in mind, please link them it would be greatly appreciated ! 

I didnt know i didnt need a overflow box. that changes things quite a bit. i could just do a hole and place bulkheads and have them facing up to surface skim, that would be the simpler way of doing it I think.
I was just worried it would not be enough water flow.

now would each line go into a gutter and then to the sump?
I am wondering what schematics people running multiple systems are using?

and for the return, have one line going up with a couple of Y's to each tank?


as for the tank stacking, I know its not ideal but I am kind of space constrained. 
all these are going in our small invitro greenhouse at university. 
we wanted to make a small coral farm or breeding setup for clownfish. 
everything is on a esdal rack that is 72 inch high by 72 inch long by 24inch wide.
there is 4 shelves, and so far I have a 33g long on there and there is enough room to work within it. 
the 50g low boi are even shorter height wise so should work well with the same shelve distance I have.
I ll try and take pics tommorrow when I am there.
I could also do 3 tanks on top of each other  and 1 tank on another rack or 2 by 2 but my other shelves are not as sturdy as the edsal one and impossible to adjust the lighting on them etc ideally the edsal rack would hold all tanks and the sump would be in the middle with my saltwater mixing station.

I am lucky enough to have a unlimited supply of reverse osmosis water thanks to the universities water system. so I could have a line for auto top off running all the time. I have that for the plants in the greenhouse already. 

For the sump I was thinking of getting those huge blue barrels or stock tanks and have that as the sump running next to the rack. 
it would not be under the rack so maybe the plumbing would be different ?

thank you for your help 

[seabass]

I've even used just a strainer right off of a bulkhead before (to keep snails and such out of the drain).  An external Durso standpipe is pretty cheap and simple.

 

 

I'd keep the return flow to a minimum and use powerheads in the tanks themselves for flow.  Then a single return for each (opposite side of the drain) is sufficient.  Try to keep the return close to the level of the bottom of your intake, so that the back flow, when your return pump(s) are off, doesn't overflow your sump.

 

It's possible to plumb the drains together, but I'd just run a separate drain for each tank.  I feel that it would help keep things simple.  Use no restrictions (valves) on the drains, but you can add valves on your return lines to control the flow to each tank.

 

Plumbing all of your tanks together has a number of advantages (sharing filtration, heaters, supplements, etc).  However, keeping each separate would prevent cross contamination of pests and diseases.

[DaJMasta]

There's a lot here and I don't think I've got time to do a lot at the moment, but for plumbing inspiration you should really take a look at a fish store with a saltwater rack (freshwater is less likely to be plumbed together, generally) and see how they've drilled their tanks and stuff.  There are also some fish keepers on youtube with rooms that they build or rennovate and show some plumbing features - the one that comes to mind right now is aquarium coop, which has some tours of commercial growers, advanced hobbyists' spaces, and has their own warehouse and growing systems with some plumbing features that could be viable for you.

I do want to emphasize one thing, though, your sump NEEDS to be the lowest water level of the system.  If you're not going to use one of the tanks you're already planning to be it, I really have no idea how you're going to stack tanks 5 high for the footprint of a single one of these, but you could try something like a rubbermaid tub on the ground either under or beside your stand if you need those couple of extra inches of height.  The sump is a useful place to stash filtration equipment and heaters, but it will only work properly if it is the lowest point in the system, so if you use a 55 gallon plastic drum, for example, only the portion of the drum that is below the water level of your lowest tank will be usable sump volume, and if you ever fill above that you will overflow out of another tank.