Am I going to have issues with this plumbing setup?

[HeadstrongRSS]

Hey all -

Bought to actually plumb my tank, but thought I'd get some feedback first on the drain.

I have a 75g cornerflo tank with a trigger systems 30 elite sump. I'm a bit concerned with how I get enough water to take the path right at the first T.

Will this work or should I adjust it somehow? Thanks in advance...I really would like to avoid redos.

[Cyproz]

im confused, did you want 3 drains with 1 on one side of the sump and 2 on the opposite?

where is your return line?

[mcgyvr]

So is that to feed a "refugium" or something?

It would be more reliable to feed those from your return pipes vs drain plumbing..

[GimpyFin]

The trigger elite sump has 2 drains on the right by the socks and the tube on the back left is for the return. Your drawing has all 3 tied together (If I'm looking at it correctly.) I'm assuming your cornerflo has 2 drilled holes and you are using 1 for a drain and the other for the return? A simple fix, the drain should just have an elbow instead of a tee coming off the main pipe feeding the two outlets to the right. Then run the return pipe separate from the other hole in the overflow to the return chamber on the left of the sump.

[HeadstrongRSS]

Thanks to each of you for the ultra quick feedback. I probably should have been more descriptive. Attaching another shot that shows better context. Thanks you all for helping me succeed in this.

Cyproz - Yeah, this was only showing drain, no return line. The thought was to feed the refugium from the drain, since that wouldn't have stuff filtered out by the filter socks and would better feed the refugium, where I plan to keep pods, possible crab, etc. Return pump goes in that front-left section but I hadn't diagrammed that out yet.

mcgyvr - Yep, the left drain was to feed the refugium. Thank you for your comment, as I believe Gimpyfin was also echoing that...it's where I thought the issue was. With a straight drop from the T, I wasn't sure how to get enough water going to the filter socks.

GimpyFin - Thank you for your response, as that was what I was assuming. According to TriggerSys tho, that back-left drain is to feed the refugium. So I should instead split off from the return pump line, one path going to refugium and then one going back up to the return in the cornerflow? That sounds logical, just want to confirm. I'm a plumbing moron...first one I've done.

Should I be using all PVC as well? Any need for soft tubing? I plan to have some silicone tubing from return pump to the return line to reduce vibration.

[HeadstrongRSS]

Forgot to attach image.

[GimpyFin]

Ok, I see now. I looked at those sumps briefly and thought the return/refugium areas were flip-flopped. You could flip the tee to the left 90 deg. so it better feeds both sections and just modify the piping going to the fuge a little. Then just run your return back up to the other hole in the tank. I used all hard pvc on mine, with the exception of a small section of black vinyl connecting the return pump to the pvc return via a barbed fitting.

[reddtiger88]

The problem with this design is that most of the water is going to drop to the refugium. The path of least resistance and all that. you would have to mostly close it up with the valve and that would allow things to get stuck. I would rather use a t in the middle and let the water hit that and separate equally in each direction. The reason that sump has two inputs is because it is supposed to handle large tanks with multiple overflows. You do not have to plumb them all. Hope that helps. Just my two cents.

[HeadstrongRSS]

Ok, I see now. I looked at those sumps briefly and thought the return/refugium areas were flip-flopped. You could flip the tee to the left 90 deg. so it better feeds both sections and just modify the piping going to the fuge a little. Then just run your return back up to the other hole in the tank. I used all hard pvc on mine, with the exception of a small section of black vinyl connecting the return pump to the pvc return via a barbed fitting.

I'm apparently not thinking about this correctly because I cant wrap my head around it....unless you're talking about rotating a different 90 degrees. I have basically no room to take that initial T from the drain to the left at all...I end up hitting the side of the stand pretty quickly and wouldn't have space to include a ball valve. It's already pretty snug....I don't have much room to the left or much above the sump to play with.

So I took the elbow suggestion you made and made a modification to better control flow. Provided I can get it to fit (worried about the 2 elbows below the initial T), is this a more acceptable solution? I didn't include the return line here because that's simply going from the pump in the return area up to the return line in the left corner.

Thanks again for your help. It's greatly appreciated. Wifey is on my *** to get this moving...I'm upgrading from a 36 with HOB to this 75 and my 8 month old daughter is beginning to crawl and open things (like a tank stand)...so trying to get this moving this weekend so it can be baby proofed. :)

[HeadstrongRSS]

The problem with this design is that most of the water is going to drop to the refugium. The path of least resistance and all that. you would have to mostly close it up with the valve and that would allow things to get stuck. I would rather use a t in the middle and let the water hit that and separate equally in each direction. The reason that sump has two inputs is because it is supposed to handle large tanks with multiple overflows. You do not have to plumb them all. Hope that helps. Just my two cents.

Yeah, that was my concern and it does help. Any feedback from experienced reefers is appreciated. Would you have the same concerns with the modification I just included in the post above?

[GimpyFin]

That looks better, although I'd maybe look at using a side outlet elbow instead of a tee. (Instead of the ends going straight out, they are at a 90 degree.) If you are cramped for space on the left, that might be an option and help get more even flow to both areas. Your revised plumbing on the left would pretty much be the same, just picture rotating the top elbow in the picture to the left and then the other piping attaching to the other side. I attached a crappy drawing of what it would kinda look like.

[75mixedreef]

I think you have more valves than you need, you could probably do without the two above the filter socks. Just don't glue in the PVC heading down there so you can swap it out if you wanted.

[HeadstrongRSS]

Great. Thanks to everyone on this that contributed! Much appreciated.

[reddtiger88]

Don't forget if you are tight for space, you can always use flexible tubing for drains.


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[Potatohead]

I think you have more valves than you need, you could probably do without the two above the filter socks. Just don't glue in the PVC heading down there so you can swap it out if you wanted.

What I was going to post... They're simply redundant and a waste of money.

[BlueRoofTang]

I agree with these guys... if you want to have the one on the left, close the valve a little to restrict it to the flow rate you want. Then remove the other two valves...cause you don't want to take the chance of snails or something getting stuck at a valve and flooding your house.

[homer1475]

Pretty sure the general rule of thumb is to never T off your drain lines.

With the way that drawing is, I would be surprised if any water made it over to the fuge section. Drains are gravity fed and the path of least resistance will be straight down. I'm not saying it won't work, but I think you'll find you'll either be constantly fiddling with it, or you won't get much flow at all through the T section.

You would be better off T'ing off your return to feed your fuge.

[HeadstrongRSS]

Hey all! Continued thanks for these insights. I also currently am using schedule 80 piping, which appears to be a mistake as well due to restricted flow by having less diameter in the tube. *sighs*

To all - Yeah, I got excited awhile back watching BRS plumbing videos and think I bought too many and was trying to justify use for them. If I remove those, I'll now have 3 extra brand new 1" cepex ball valves. SMH. But yes, I think you're all correct on that.

Gimpyfin - I actually played with the idea last night to use one of the side outlet elbows and unfortunately, I quickly ran out of space with hard PVC and some interesting angles that it created...which leads me to if flexible tubing might be an option to feed the fuge?

reddtiger88 - By flexible tubing, are you talking more about this stuff?
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/braided-nylon-tubing-sold-by-the-foot.html
Or are we talking more about wet-vac? The nylon tubing seemed to be pretty stiff when I looked at my local hardware store....and I'm not quite sure how these all connect (if thinking wet vac, no clue...but vinyl has barbed fittings). But after playing last night, I would consider and am leaning using flexible tubing to do the line down to the fuge.

homer - That is a possibility and was really my main initial concern...I think if I take the approach that Gimpyfin suggested with the 3 way elbow, and the drain line then has no direct path down...instead branching towards the front return area and then to the right to where the filter socks are, that may avoid it. Thoughts? I could try to split off my return pump, but probably feel a bit more comfortable buying a small, separate pump that handles that.

Man I'm wasting $$$ figuring this all out. LOL! But a sincere thank you to all!

[reddtiger88]

Doesn't matter there isn't much pressure on a drain line. So you can use pretty much anything that holds water


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[Jayreefer]

I do not like to drain directly into fudge. It fills it full of trapped detritus. My knew sump system I just installed in my 240 eliminated drain to fudge and my nitrate issue has been solved.

[Lsufan]

With having only one drain I don't think I would set it up where u have to have valves on your drains. I would run the drain straight to the sock section then tee of the return to feed the fuge. That way u can get rid of all the valves on the drains. I like to feed my fuge from my return anyways, I wouldn't want it fed by one of my drains. U can still tee off the drain so u can use both socks but u would eliminate the drain going to the fuge.

One thing I might would add would be a union right above the bulkheads going into the sump. It would help if u have to remove the sump for some reason but it would also let u make adjustments to your plumbing if u need to and u wouldn't have to replace the bulkheads

[HeadstrongRSS]

Good points all. I had thought I read that it was good to have the unfiltered water in the fuge because it has nutrients to feed bacteria and pods...and then put a CUC in there to handle it. Seems consensus here is the opposite...unexpected, but I do get the nitrate part.

And yes, I will use unions to replace the valves I have that lead to the filter socks.

I've got a bunch of items coming today from BRS, so I'm going to play with some options. Then return what i don't need. Unfortunately, I'm going to have quite a few quality ball valves that are unnecessary and unused.

[reddtiger88]

I like to keep a few crabs and snails in mine for that reason


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