Plumbing Question

[dvara78]

<span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’m plumbing a new system and before I cement all the pipes in place I wanted a quick gut check. </span></span>
<span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Most tee of their return to make water changes easier – flip a couple of valves and the return pump pushes out 10%-15% of old tank water. </span></span>
<span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I went the other way and tee’d off of my drain from the tank and added valves which will allow me to remove 10%-15% of old tank water using gravity. While water is draining, I’ll be adding new salt water back to the sump. </span></span>
<span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’ve read lots of threads and most tee off their return to make removal of old tank water easier. Is there anything wrong with teeing off the drain instead of the return? </span></span>

 

[ghbrewer]

It depends on the plumbing and sump configuration. Can you post a pic or diagram of your intended plumbing configuration? I think this would help in determining any issues you might run into.

 

[freezerrat]

I keep a small maxijet in the sump with a small length of hose connected and coiled around. It keeps the sump stirred up and I just pull the hose out for a water change and add water to the return chamber. Not as cool as fancy pants plumbing but simple and no detritus settles.

 

[enderg60]

I would not Tee off the return for a water dump since it may run the sump dry before you get enough water out for the water change unless you only do small ones. A siphon drain is a much easier way to drain water from the tank.

draining from your drain lines will also be a problem as you will only be able to drain off down to the overflows and will run your sump dry in the process as well.

If you want an easy valve to dump water do a siphon drain that goes down past your overflows, or just drain your sump/fuge.

I have a drain on my fuge that dumps outside. I just bypass the fuge return flow, empty it, refill it and turn the return flow back to the fuge.

 

[whistl3r]

I do exactly what freezerrat does, makes changes easy and keeps my chaeto spinning in the mean time.