Another 240 Gal Sump question.

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I'm not a fan of using 4x4s in the stand. They warp and twist more so than 2x4s sandwiched, glued, and screwed. This ultimately leads to a weaker stand, when the point of using 4x4s was to make it stronger.

While I understand and appreciate overbuilding, I think you need to evaluate access to the sump (or getting it in and out for that matter).

Actually, as I look at it more, I don't like that design at all. I don't think it spreads out the load to the corners as well as it should. If you have verticals in the corners, let the weight rest on them, and not the screws that span the 2x6s attached to the 4x4s. There is a thread on here with a design someone took from member Rocketengineer on ReefCentral. I'm not sure if they gave him credit, but let me see if I can find it.

Hope that helps.
 
Here's the thread on Reefcentral. You can see the initial drawing and how it supports the above and below sections. I think you will be much better served by this design instead of yours. Also, you can expand and scale it out to 8 feet, also up to 2x6s. Scroll through the thread and there is a large stand someone made that is on a flatbed truck. It's exactly what you're looking for.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1169964&highlight=rocketscientist
 
Well the 4x4's through out the stand are actually taking the load and the point of the stand was to make it so that the load was supported by 12 - 4x4's instead of just 4 corners. The "deck" and "foot" 2x6's are resting squarely on top of the 4x4 posts, flat. To those flats are attached 2x6's vertically beneath them which span both the entire length of the tank as well as the width.

The thought was rather than have an estimated 3000lbs supported by 4 vertical positions at the corners (750lbs ea.) to have 12 positions to bear the same load (250lbs ea.). So really while I appreciate the access I'd gain by having only 4 posts, why is it necessarily bad to have more vertical posts?
 
I love the plumbing, looks clean and simple. You may need to up the size of the drains or add another. You may want to use something like "glass-holes.com" for the overflow on the drains. I'm using a glass-holes overflow now on my acrylic 360 and I love it! Unbelievable amounts of flow and it keeps the fish out of the sump :)

Of course, build the stand however you want, you already have the wood for it. I was just commenting on how strong it was going to be and I love that! Nothing negative at all. 2X4's would be over kill IMO so you can imagine my joy when seeing your plans LOL It's like rabbit hunting with a 10 gauge shot gun.

Good luck, love the build!
 
In case you aren't following the other thread (slightly related), someone asked about particular drain configurations. It ma be of interest or it may not. I'm gonna be lazy and quote myself instead of retyping.
Clay;4495869; said:
This is the setup I will have in my 375g. It's commonly called a Herbie system (after the hobbyist who admittedly stumbled upon the configuration), and involves a drain and a safety. There is a more advanced version (called the beananimal from another hobbyist who expanded on the Herbie) that has 2 drains and a safety.

So back to the question. Typically, there is a drain and a return, but if there isn't a cutout for lock line returns, chances are it's drilled for a herbie style. (see links)
http://www.bostonreefers.org/forums/showthread.php?97781-quot-Herbie-quot-drains-WOW
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=344892&perpage=25&pagenumber=1
As I get closer to putting my tank together, I'll put some pics and designs up. As of now, my tank is in my garage while I do other projects around the house.

Oh, and here's the beananimal (3 pipes)
http://www.beananimal.com/projects/silent-and-fail-safe-aquarium-overflow-system.aspx
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1310585
Click to expand...
 
I'm always interested. At this point since I don't have an overflow box built into my tank I think that I'd be best served by having either: 1) a box like those supplied by glass-holes.com or 2) go the DIY pluming route and use elbows and other fittings to achieve my goal.

My plan before the glass-holes.com overflows were brought up was to have a "trap" style setup with gutter guard mesh where the inlets were higher in the tank than the bulkhead and the water would need to travel through a "U" section before leaving. Similar to how I would setup a DIY HOB overflow for a glass tank using just PVC pipe just without actually exiting the top of the tank. Alternatively I was considering just putting that same mesh over a bulkhead and securing it in place with a flange. I hadn't considered sound problems from the overflow since I've never had an overflow to deal with before.
 
Clay;4497450; said:
In case you aren't following the other thread (slightly related), someone asked about particular drain configurations. It ma be of interest or it may not. I'm gonna be lazy and quote myself instead of retyping.
Click to expand...

Those links make my brain hurt. I need reread them a couple of times.
 
All righty, so I've taken a page from Bean and some other random yahoo and thrown in a little of my own spice. Just for kicks. I'm not sure that I'd have a lot of noise from a glass-holes.com overflow box kit, and if I did have a problem with noise there wouldn't be much of anything I could do about it. I'm not able or willing to install a permanent overflow in the tank that I have no access to and I don't want to cut a giant hole in the top of the tank to give me that access. I know that to run a Bean or Herbie setup I need to have installed overflows in the tank and stand-pipes won't cut the mustard to achieve the desired effect. So.... this leaves me with a giant question mark that was punctuated with an exclamation point when I saw this thread on Reef Central.

So what I came up with was a skimmer design that might potentially be a solution to what was bugging me in the first place.



Now here's the trick, the way this is setup the bulkheads can either be placed high in the tank like I have illustrated or low in the tank at the bottom of the "U" depending on how much room I don't want to sacrifice in the tank. However it has all the features of a BeanAnimal silent overflow with an adjustable valve, safety overflow, and emergency overflow without the skimmer channel. It also has the same "problem" as the BA where the emergency overflow would potentially come into play on system start-up.

If more overflow is needed, that's where things would start to get a little dicey, though I imagine that cutting teeth into the skimmer section would be one way to mitigate that. Apart from this being a completely hypothetical situation, is there any reason I should believe that this won't work?
 
Interesting! You might have a knack at this plumbing stuff...........
I really like that skimmer idea. Your using what you have. I think the only restriction could be the skimmer. You may need to modify that while testing. Might even have to cut that pipe right down the middle and sort of make a U shaped gutter out of it.
Please give this a try and take some pictures, I think your on to something :D
 
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