my 270 setup and overflow question

[Darren13]

I bought a new glass 270 about 4 months ago as an upgrade from my acrylic 240. I fabricated an all steel stand out of 2x2 square tubing. It is built like a tank. I decided to make a fish room and put the aquarium in the wall of the downstairs living room. It turned out pretty good and the framing was alot easier than I thought. The hardest part of the build was leveling and getting the tank the right distance off the ground to fit into the hole I cut out for it.

I am currently designing a large filtration system for my 270 gal aquarium. I have 2 Fx5 filters on it now and im working on a 150 gallon rubbermaid sump/growout tank.

I have a mag drive 12 that I will be using to push water from the sump back into the aquarium.Im using 1.25" pvc throughout. I tried to use some of the diagrams illustrate on the site to come up with a siphon overflow that pulls water from the middle of the aquarium.

Anyway here it is. It will work, but the water come out at a rate of ~1000 gallons an hour when i plug the top of the pvc above the T. and it comes out at about ~300 gallon an hour when I leave the pvc unplugged above the T..Is my design flawed or am I doing something wrong?

I cant figure it out and its driving me.

My idea is to have the siphon overflow water go into the rubbermaid 150 through a series of media/filters. The rubbermaid will also double as a growout tank for some pbass and it will also have an overflow in it. The water which overflows is then pumped back into the 270. Can this work or should I give up?

Also what kind of PBass did I buy? THis is my first one and hes growing extremly fast. Sorry for all the Q's.

 

[Kyle_91]

Looks nice man! how big is the pbass?

 

[Darren13]

tiny just about 3.5 inches. But he is by far the coolest fish I ever owned.

 

[Kyle_91]

tiny just about 3.5 inches. But he is by far the coolest fish I ever owned.

no doubt man, the aro is gorgeous by the way.
WELCOME TO THE SITE!!

 

[Blub Blub]

Nice job.

I like how the metal stand leaves so much free space under the tank. Not that you need it with the large hidden room.

 

[Domesticsage]

I bought a new glass 270 about 4 months ago as an upgrade from my acrylic 240. I fabricated an all steel stand out of 2x2 square tubing. It is built like a tank. I decided to make a fish room and put the aquarium in the wall of the downstairs living room. It turned out pretty good and the framing was alot easier than I thought. The hardest part of the build was leveling and getting the tank the right distance off the ground to fit into the hole I cut out for it.

I am currently designing a large filtration system for my 270 gal aquarium. I have 2 Fx5 filters on it now and im working on a 150 gallon rubbermaid sump/growout tank.

I have a mag drive 12 that I will be using to push water from the sump back into the aquarium.Im using 1.25" pvc throughout. I tried to use some of the diagrams illustrate on the site to come up with a siphon overflow that pulls water from the middle of the aquarium.

Anyway here it is. It will work, but the water come out at a rate of ~1000 gallons an hour when i plug the top of the pvc above the T. and it comes out at about ~300 gallon an hour when I leave the pvc unplugged above the T..Is my design flawed or am I doing something wrong?

I cant figure it out and its driving me.

My idea is to have the siphon overflow water go into the rubbermaid 150 through a series of media/filters. The rubbermaid will also double as a growout tank for some pbass and it will also have an overflow in it. The water which overflows is then pumped back into the 270. Can this work or should I give up?

Also what kind of PBass did I buy? THis is my first one and hes growing extremly fast. Sorry for all the Q's.

I found the same thing with the flow rate on my setup. I don't know for sure but I suspect it has something to do with air being sucked into the pipe which will take up space.

As for the grow out in the sump, yes it will work. My buddy had a pair of Dovii breed in his sump before he gave them to me.

No clue what kind of PBass that is, I don't know PBass

 

[epond83]

You need a bigger over flow pipe, the pump is under pressure so it can flow more then the over flow from gravity.

Did you look at this sticky? http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=205645
It will show you what size pipe you need for the flow you want.

 

[Darren13]

Sorry epond. I have no idea what your talking about. I did read the sticky and im trying to cinda replicate the alternate overflow idea. The last one on the page where the water is siphoned from the middle of the tank. The 1 1/4" pvs should give me the flow rate I want which is about 800 gph.

When I cap the PVC above the T the water siphons out extremly fast so I put a ball valve below the T to slow the water as it enters the sump. When the water reaches a certain height in the sump it overflows into a pipe that leads to the mag 12 pump. The water is then pumped back into the tank.

Does anyone else use this pumbing scheme or am I completely backwards about how I think this should work. I figured with the 150 Gal Rubbermaid I will have alot of extra room in the sump if the power goes out since the water will siphon all the way to the black strainer (in the attached img).

Thanks!!

 

[epond83]

I thought you were saying 1000gph was not enough.

If i undersand you right it sound like by capping the T you are creating a full shipon, this will flow a lot of water. The down side is it might not start back up the way you want. Also as you noticed it can flow more then your pump and by adjusding it with a ball valve you can dail it in, but if the flow getd resticked then you could over flow the tank.

A way around this is to dail the full shipon to just under the pump flow and have a second true over flow pipe to haddle the little extra and have room for more flow if something happens. If you look up i think herbie overflow or BeanAnimal silent overflow you will see something simular to this. Ultimitly you want the pump to control the flow of everything.

Also if you have an over flow into your pump i would worry about it running dry from a little evaportaion.

 

[Darren13]

Yea I see exactly what your saying. There is in fact an overflow in the sump so there is no way the tank could overflow. I did this because I didnt want the tank to overflow with all the extra water I want to have in the sump.

Im not too worried the siphon not starting back up automatically. If there is a power outage there will be enough water in the sump to cover the media and it will not overflow.

I handnt thought about the evaporation, but that is an excellent point. As soon as there is any water loss the overflow will not work and no water will get back to the tank.

Do you think I could eleviate this by adding a couple extra extra gallons of water to the system (just enough so that the tank wont overflow), and then dial in the pump so its controlling the water flow?