Help with position of Bulkheads

[pillz]

Im about to finish up my new tank, drilling and installing VHOs and what not. I have a couple of questions on the placement of my holes. I want to make sure the overflow that is installed on the tank can handle the flow I plan on putting through it. I also need to know what size hole to drill and the best place to put it for my CLS. The pump will be a Little giant Q 3-mdqx-sc (1150 GPH).

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The CLS returns arnt going to be drilled into the tank bc I really dont want to make swiss cheese out of this tank and risk it anymore than I have to. They return for the CLS is going to be 1in pvc then Y into two 3/4in locline. I bought about 2.5 ft of loc line just to make sure that this could be done nicely since its not going to be drilled.

Also do the 24in VHO bulbs need anymore space than just 24"? The inside of my canopy only has 24.25" of clearence for the bulbs, will this be enough?




PS. Im getting tired of having so much of a cal stuggle and since I do plan on adding more SPS and am wanting to stick with more vibrante colored corals I am thinking of getting rid of my Gold tear drop maxima. Hes about 3.5in long and its great loves to squirt you in the face everytime you pick it up. Im not sure how soon Ill let it go its kind of like my baby, but if your interested PM me. I will sell or trade depending on what you have for trade.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

Pillz wrote: Im about to finish up my new tank, drilling and installing VHOs and what not. I have a couple of questions on the placement of my holes. I want to make sure the overflow that is installed on the tank can handle the flow I plan on putting through it. I also need to know what size hole to drill and the best place to put it for my CLS. The pump will be a Little giant Q 3-mdqx-sc (1150 GPH).

alt="" />


The CLS returns arnt going to be drilled into the tank bc I really dont want to make swiss cheese out of this tank and risk it anymore than I have to. They return for the CLS is going to be 1in pvc then Y into two 3/4in locline. I bought about 2.5 ft of loc line just to make sure that this could be done nicely since its not going to be drilled.

Also do the 24in VHO bulbs need anymore space than just 24"? The inside of my canopy only has 24.25" of clearence for the bulbs, will this be enough?




PS. Im getting tired of having so much of a cal stuggle and since I do plan on adding more SPS and am wanting to stick with more vibrante colored corals I am thinking of getting rid of my Gold tear drop maxima. Hes about 3.5in long and its great loves to squirt you in the face everytime you pick it up. Im not sure how soon Ill let it go its kind of like my baby, but if your interested PM me. I will sell or trade depending on what you have for trade.

Please send me a pic of the maxima-

 

[mojo]

My advice would be to make the CLS hole as big as you think you may need in the future, and use reducers for now. I don't know the size of your tank, so it's hard to make a recommendation. 1.5" bulkhead (2 3/8" hole for standard bulkhead) would cover 95% of the pumps out there. You can always reduce it down to 1" for smaller pumps. 1.5" also puts less strain on your pump when you add in the filter/screen you'll need to keep from sucking in critters, and will make the overall velocity slower going into the same hole, again lowering the chances that critters will be sucked in.

Having said that, if it's a reasonalby small tank, you may never see the need for 1.5". Plus, the difference between 1" and 1.5" is fairly significant, so if you have a smaller tank, it may be harder to hide.

As for position, I'd put it anywhere behind the rock. Just be sure to use a intake filter of some type.

Lastly, I'd highly recommend looking at using some

 

[pillz]

Woops I guess thats something important to add, its a 37 cube. So a 23/8s is huge. I just want to make sure there will be enough flow so that I wont need to add any powerheads to the tank. I with the headloss cal. I came up with the LG putting out about 900-1000 GPH and then my return will be doing about 700-800 GPH, so those two should cover all the flow needed for a 37 gallon 24x21x18 mixed (sps moslty) tank.

 

[mojo]

Keep in mind that head loss is calculated from the original height of the water that you're sucking from. In your case, this would be the height of the water in the tank to the top of your returns- probably only several inches. Disregarding the loss from elbows and such, you'll probably get pretty close to that 1100gph. (IE- in my own setup, even though my pump is 16' down from the tank, the top of the water in the sump is 12' down, so I calcuate based on 12' of head).

Either way, that'll probably be enough flow- just remember that it's volume of flow, not velocity - you don't want a firehose pointed at the corals!

 

[pillz]

yea thats true, I was thinking of adding a sqwd to it. That would help make things choppy. Also since all the pipes are going to be ran with locline im going to point the return pump at the exit of the CLS pumps, so that the flow is more of a burst all over than direct. The tank is going to be BB so I will most likely have one of the CLS lines pointing straight down to blast everything up into the water and then the other for more flow.


On a side not, I really dont want to pay 75-100 bucks to get all these holes drilled, so if anyone wants to maybe trade your drilling services for a nice maxima and maybe some other stuff depending then let me know. Ill give you the stuff no matter if the tank makes it or not, Its just now hitting me all the crap that I forgot to buy. I still need about 3 more bulkheads, VHO bulbs wires, and all kinds of stuff.

 

[mojo]

Is it acrylic or glass?

 

[pillz]

Glass, its an oceanic 37.

 

[pillz]

are these the same as the link you gave me Chris?

 

[mojo]

They say sch80, but don't look like the sch80 bulkheads I've used, MRC uses, or have seen at Handy Hardware here locally, so I can't comment on them either way...

 

[pillz]

I guess not many people have diamond drill bits. I called Nemo and they said that they only do 3/4 and 1in holes. So I cant get it done there. Cap bay is wayyyy too far away. Is there anyone else?

 

[schwaggs]

Pillz,

Once I get my bits back, I would be happy to drill your tank. I even have a drill press that reduces the chances of breaking the tank. The only requirement is you bring it to the woods of Cumming.

The 24" VHO tubes will be 24.5" end to end if you add the typical waterproof endcaps.

 

[pillz]

Sweet thanks man! Then the clam is yours! Sound good?