Help fish room running 2 lg reef tanks

[scubatim]

Ok, I have a 300dd in wall reef tank which is actually seen in living room but all equipment and tank is inside my walk in closet! (Wife isn't real happy about this!) 200dd is in my office. Both tanks have there own sumps and equipment. Two of my kids are grown and moved out, so was thinking of turning one room into fish room with a 180gal sump running both reef tanks. All equipment would run out of large sump in the fish room. 1 LARGE pump running and pulling water from the tanks into the fish room! What are the pro's and cons of doing this! My list of pro's are:
1. One large, easily accessible sump.
2. All the equipment will be easier to access.
3. Quite at both reef tanks.

 

[porpoiseaquatics]

Going to need more info than what you've provided. How far is it from point A (tanks) to point B (fish room/sumps)? Is it a vertical drop from P-A to P-B or is it horizontal? You won't want to push water from the tanks to the sumps but instead push water from the sump to the tanks. The list could really go on.

 

[scubatim]

It would be a straight line from fish room. 30' from sump to 200 and then 30' more to 300. Reef tanks are 4' off the floor. I can put the sump on the floor if necessary. But the problem is that the pipes would run under the house and then have to come up through the floor to the sump. Couldn't I use 2 external pumps? 1 to pull the water from the tanks to the sump and one to push the water back from the sump to the tanks?

 

[declanisadog]

Scubatim;1015350 wrote: It would be a straight line from fish room. 30' from sump to 200 and then 30' more to 300. Reef tanks are 4' off the floor. I can put the sump on the floor if necessary. But the problem is that the pipes would run under the house and then have to come up through the floor to the sump. Couldn't I use 2 external pumps? 1 to pull the water from the tanks to the sump and one to push the water back from the sump to the tanks?

I think you are playing with fire using two separate pumps. If one gets clogged, or as they wear out at different rates over time, you've got a big flood risk

 

[scubatim]

That's true but how will the water get from the tanks to the sump?

 

[declanisadog]

Magic...(AKA gravity)

 

[scubatim]

So, as long as the sump is lower than the tanks it will drain even with having to come back up from under the house?

 

[shrimpy brains]

I agree. You have to use gravity for one direction or the other. I think it would be very difficult to match waterflow perfectly on 2 pumps. Do you have a basement?

 

[scubatim]

No and one story house. So it would be on the same floor.

 

[shrimpy brains]

I don't know how you could make that work, but I hope someone pops in here who has a great idea for you. Good luck.

 

[scubatim]

I will also ask my LFS because I know that they set up a very large reef tank for a local Dr. And they installed all the equipment and sump outside in a shed.

 

[mystery_me]

is this set up on an e return wall.. what room is going to be behind the tanks?6

 

[scubatim]

Behind the main 300 tank is my closet where all the equipment including sink but wife is tired of it taking up most of her closet. The 200 is with stand and canopy in my office.

 

[mystery_me]

sounds like u will have to do 2 systems or have them close enough to one another that they can gravity feed to one sump..

really no other way .. imho

 

[scubatim]

Just food for thought what if I use 2 pumps and with my break out box through my Neptune apex- I use multiple float switches with the parameters that if water gets x high in pump cuts off and if water gets x low in pump cuts on?

 

[mystery_me]

how many switches does the Neptune allow for to take input from

 

[enderg60]

Pick a room with a sink and a drain or you will be very unhappy with everything.

My personal thing is to have enough fresh and salt water on hand to do a 100% water change should the need arise.

 

[ghbrewer]

Hydraulically speaking, having the drain pipes go under the floor and back up to a sump that is lower than the tank will work just fine. The issue is, that depending on the flow rate, debris can accumulate in the lower most pipe. If you have a way to add a tee and a valve, you could always set it up to be the drain for water changes. This would allow you to purge the drain lines of any debris.

A benefit of plumbing it this way is that the system will be very quiet since your drain pipe will be filled with water at all times (except for when you drain them during water changes).

 

[enderg60]

^that will work fine. Depending on flow I would oversize the pipe though to account for clogs and anything. That is how we had the drain pipes run for a 1000g tank at the LFS I worked at back in the day. The drains were collected to a 4" pvc pipe that was laid in the concrete of the floor to the filter room about 40ft away. 1" Return line was run along side it.

I would do a 3" minimum return pipe, 4" to be safe.

 

[jj ocean]

EnderG60;1015494 wrote: ^that will work fine. Depending on flow I would oversize the pipe though to account for clogs and anything. That is how we had the drain pipes run for a 1000g tank at the LFS I worked at back in the day. The drains were collected to a 4" pvc pipe that was laid in the concrete of the floor to the filter room about 40ft away. 1" Return line was run along side it.

I would do a 3" minimum return pipe, 4" to be safe.

+1. I run a 3" & 1.5" pipe under the floor and below the sump's level to connect tanks from one side of the fish room to the other. Don't use multiple pumps with switches to handle the drain water ... it can be done, but too many things can go wrong. Rely on gravity.

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