Plumbing Question

T

TiberianSun

Premium Member
We are about to start a new tank build and I wanted to get some advice, comments, our thoughts on the current plumbing plan.

1 - sump, skinner, main pump will be remote from the main tank. The distance will be about 3 feet.
2 - UV will be connected via flexible lines.
3 - pumps on the Saltwater container will be the same so the supply will be the same as the return.
4 - main pump is a Reef Flo Hammerhead Hybrid
5 - skimmer is a My Reef Creations Orca Pro 1

The large Saltwater container is being used to also give us the ability to do a water change without having the water volume in the tank drop. As a side benefit we would also be increasing the water volume of the overall system. The bypass valves would be turned so the Saltwater container could be drained, refilled with RO, then salt added and mixed up. The pump inside the tank will be used to mix up the water. Also the drain line shows a pump on it which would be used to pump fresh mixed water up stairs to our other tank. The lines from the sump to the Saltwater container will be going over head so that is why I have a pump on the supply and return lines.


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Thanks for looking
 
Good design so far. I didn't see an actual question so I am going to assume you were just looking for opinions. You might consider bypassing the 180 with your second drain line and taking that directly into the remote skimmer area, then you have gravity feed the water from the skimmer area into the sump. This is how my setup works and I really like it. You also can remove one pump that way. Depending on the height of the remote skimmer, you could even have the drain from the skimmer run through the UV removing 2 pumps total.

I don't see an ATO in this design, but I'm going to assume you have already planned for one.

You should definitely place a valve between the sump and the UV as they require frequent bulb changes as part of maintenance. How come the pump in the UV is on the return side and not the supply side?
 
Thanks for the comments Sun. You are right I was just looking for thoughts, opinions, etc. The pump for the UV should be on the return side. I placed it in the wrong place. I'll look at putting the skimmer in-line with the drain to the saltwater container but I will still need a return pump back to the skimmer because the plumbing will be going up a wall and across the ceiling in the garage so I've got a decent elevation change. Also the current plumbing on the Skimmer is 2" and I was going to do smaller on the container because I have extra 1".

As far as the ATO the initial plan is to not have a traditional one. Provided the water level in the Saltwater Container never got lower than the return line the water level in the tank would never change. Basically we would be setting up a 160G ATO tank. When we put the system into bypass to mix fresh saltwater up the saltwater container would be filled by the RO container.

Once we get the plumbing set up we are going to look at trying to automate it as much as possible through the controller but that will have to wait for now.
 
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