plumbing question

[rotccapt]

hey guys i am working on a 120 gallon tank for my turtle and i am working out how i am going to plumb the tank. i would like to incorporate undergravel jets along with a spraybar all fed from a 35 gallon sump. since it is hard to explain what i want to do here is a sketch of it i know that it will function my questing is will i have a problem of siphoning when power is off? the ball valve would be used to control how much water goes to the spray bar

 

[the_deeb]

No, you should be fine. Air will be sucked into the spray bar when the water level drops below it and will break the siphon (as long as the ball valve doesn't restrict it too much and not allow sufficient air to be pulled in). I'm incorporating something similar into the tank I'm building.

 

[Pharaoh]

Looks OK to me. Like what was said above, the spray bar should give you a siphon break.

 

[rotccapt]

got another question for you all my plan is to make a wet/dry sump for my tank i would like to use one of the Rubbermaid type 3 tiered drawer sets to act as my mecanical filtration section. i will be using a quiet one 4000 pump at about 5 feet of head using 1" pipe for my return. my question is will one 1" overflow work or should i run 2. myu pump should be putting out 600 gph

 

[the_deeb]

Does that 600gph factor in head loss or is that just what the pump is rated for?

A 1" overflow should theoretically be able to handle 600gph but dependening on your design you may not achieve this. In addition, I always like to have a second overflow for redundancy in case your primary one gets clogged.

I would run 2.

 

[kallmond]

I was told just a couple days ago by several of the 'overflow' gurus on this site that you should probably double your pumps volume in overflow potential. IE, if your pump will do 600gph, you should have close to 1200gph worth of overflow. In your case you'd want 2 1" overflows.

 

[rotccapt]

the 600 gph is at 6 feet of head. ok 2 it is. should i do one on either side of the tank or right next to each other?

 

[rotccapt]

hi guys i finaly decided on how to setup my sump. here is a drawing of my design. the over flow pipes will either be 1" pvc or the reinforced flexible tubing and barb fittings (leaning towards this idea easier to tear it all down without destruction) these will flow into individual lengths of pvc pipe that is capped at the ends and drilled to make two spray bars. these spray bars will shower down on the first drawer of the 3 tier drawer set that will have the bottom cut out and a section of egg crate put in its place that will have a layer of quilt batting as mecanical filtration. the second drawer will also have quilt batting in it but i may just drill the drawer instead of cutting it out to crate a drip tray. the bottom drawer will be just a shell with the bottom cut out and an egg crate box attached to the bottom to hold 120 pot scrbbies in. this hole assembly will be held up by a pvc stool inside the 30 gallon sterilite container. i will be building an exoskeleton for the container to combat bowing.i have also toyed with putting some crushed lava rock in the sump.

what do you think of my plan? i may go with bio balls instead of the pot scrubbies though

any good places to get either pot scrubbies or bio balls at a good price?