Plumbing 101

[Willz]

Hello All,
I will be helping a friend plumb a 220 gallon tank this weekend. He got a really good deal on it, but it was used. It came pre-drilled with 13 holes. There are two in each back corner on the bottom, 7 on the back, and two in a box at the center top of the tank for overflows. I thought we could use the two in the box for our overflows to the sump. We can probably use a couple more on the back of the tank for returns (if they are high enough that the sump can handle the backflow if he loses power), but that still leaves a bunch to be plugged. I was thinking using a few for a closed loop with a canister. So, couple of questions:
1. How do we safely plug the ones we don't need?
2. On a closed loop canister, are the plastic hose clamps enough to be sure it won't pop off? Or should we get the stainless ones? Also, how much are canisters rated for pressure wise? I don't want it blowing up either.
3. Is there any guide on here for how much flow an overflow box will handle? This one has 18" of upper edge.
Thanks in advance,
Will

 

[DaveB]

I would just get the stainless ones, it's not like they're expensive.

To plug the extras you could just connect pairs of them with PVC or tubing. If there's room behind the tank so that things aren't criss-crossing and getting in the way there's no downside to just putting a bar of PVC between two of them and just closing them off. It serves no purpose, of course, but it'd be watertight.

Any canister, provided the gaskets are good, will be fine. Use a lower hole for the return on that and set it up to help with the sand cleaning by pushing debris around strategically like you would with a powerhead. Depending on what filter you use, if it's easy to disconnect and clean, you could use one with both low holes and just use it for mechanical filtration. One low hole is the return that shoots poop into the other low hole (intake), and frequent canister cleanings.

I suppose that's more work than just having a sock on the sump or something. But you have a billion options.

 

[Egon]

I agree with the above.
Stainless hose clamps
For the over flow your restriction wont be the 18" of upper edge it will be the holes your bulkheads are using. Hopefully it has a hole large enough for a 1.5" bulkhead. There's flow charts here you can use to figure out drain capacities to pick out a pump..
Plugging the holes is easy with threaded bulkheads and threaded PVC plugs. I would keep one for a drain for easy water changes.
Canister filters will be able to handle any pressure you throw at them with a normal aquarium pump. If your using a Jacuzzi pump or something odd then you may have issues, anything sold for aquarium use will be fine. If the canister has 1" intakes and returns then find a pump with 1" intakes and so on.
Good luck and take a few pictures

 

[Willz]

Thanks for your info! I'll be plumbing my first sump on Saturday, so fingers crossed all goes well. Will pick up some caps, stainless steel clamps, and like the idea of leaving one hole with a ball valve for siphon free water changes. Great feedback, thanks!

 

[Egon]

Welcome to MFK! Your going to love this site

 

[DaveB]

Semi inspired by this thread, I actually just closed off the two holes in the bottom of my tank with a python hose. I am just setting up the tank as a temporary holding tank right now so I didn't feel like dealing with cutting tubing or ordering new bulkheads or getting new adapters... the existing bulkheads were reduced down to 1/2, so I just connected them with the python and clamped it off.

So you could definitely do something like that. Stick a small pump in between them too and you could have all kinds of fun with currents and water movement.

 

[Willz]

Semi inspired by this thread, I actually just closed off the two holes in the bottom of my tank with a python hose. I am just setting up the tank as a temporary holding tank right now so I didn't feel like dealing with cutting tubing or ordering new bulkheads or getting new adapters... the existing bulkheads were reduced down to 1/2, so I just connected them with the python and clamped it off.

So you could definitely do something like that. Stick a small pump in between them too and you could have all kinds of fun with currents and water movement.

That is great idea. I mean I could run a UV through two of them. Or a pump for pushing the waste around. I'm actually really looking forward to this project now. He has all the bulkheads for the holes and they are all threaded, so we can probably get most of the stuff from a hardware store to make this happen this weekend. He's keeping tropheus, so lots of current and turnover would be a good thing. I came into it, thinking that a lot of holes would be negative, but now it's starting to look like a good thing. Wish I would have found that tank first! Thanks!

 

[DaveB]

Cool. Put a thread up about it with lots of pictures and get creative. UV is a great idea. Get a really weak pump that'd never work for filtration and just join two holes... it'd keep it nice and slow and exposed through the UV, which is ideal for that purpose.

 

[Willz]

Cool. Put a thread up about it with lots of pictures and get creative. UV is a great idea. Get a really weak pump that'd never work for filtration and just join two holes... it'd keep it nice and slow and exposed through the UV, which is ideal for that purpose.

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Will do if I can figure out how to post pics on this site