plywood tank drain thoughts

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ercnan

ercnan

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 14, 2006
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The End Of The Yellow Brick Road
If I built a large plywood/glass tank, what do you folks think about this idea for draining to a sump underneath.
Instead of the typical setup with standpipes/weirs across the back or in the back corner/s, Why not just cut 2 4" squares in the center of the bottom with acrylic/glass square tubes rising through them. They would dump straight to the sump below with no piping/gurgling issues I would think.
The sump would have tops across this section that the tubes were also connected to for splash noise control.
Once the water level was achieved to desired, seal them in place to the floor, and stack rocks around them to hide them. Two rock piles that also serve as drains.
Being that big, the returns could always be run up through them as well with no ill effect on flow.
Or.....maybe even easier/better would be 4" holes with pvc tubes.
I could use floor flanges on the tank bottom and threaded tubes on both sides for drainage.
Want to drain the tank ? unscrew the intank section (provided I also setup the sump to drain at the same time.)
Sorry, ideas flying while I type.
Sounds logical and possible to me.
A pump that would outrun 2 4" drains would be the least of the problem I think.
Anybody tried this route ?
Comments?
 
No comments, flames, or anything ??
I am a gineau pig on this?
 
It sounds basically as if you want to move the standpipes from the back of the tank to the middle. I don't see any issues with it. I would use the acrylic plate, just simply go through the plywood. You could also just put a plastic drain wherever you wanted in the tank and put a valve on it.. then just direct it to the nearest floor drain. I wouldn't want to have to unscrew the thing everytime. The best idea I ever heard for this came the TheFishGuy. He build his monster aquarium with a bottom drain direct to the floor drain, and with two very unique overflows that could also be used to do instant 30% water changes. Here is a link.. be forewarned It's a god awful long thread but very very interesting.

http://cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=103294
 
Thanks Rivermud, I'll check it out.
On further thought I guess it would be just having 2 4 inch stand pipes in the middle of the floor.
 
If this is a large plywood tank, why dont you have an overhead trickle or internal trickle? Put in a false wall (side, back, corner, central rock clump etc) and have your sump inside your tank. The beauty of an internal sump is that it doesnt have to be totally waterproof as long as your main outer tank is. The fewer holes through your main outer walls the less chance of failure and the cheaper it becomes. There are quite a few different internal sump designs all doing different things. In Australia we call them side drop filters.
 
fishdance:
Right now, the plans are for 8'x4'x24" ~479g's (large to me anyway).
I've not researched this internal design, but it would seem to require a substantial amount of the tank space.
My undertank sump plans were for a standard 125g, and I am questioning if that's going to be enough.
My current 125 does have a sort of over head trickle in that the canisters pump to the W/D, and it drains back to the tank by gravity.
Seems to be working well so far, as I just did this a couple weeks ago.
 
Use 4" PVC with a 3" PVC in the middle of each. Paint them black with Krylon Fusion and cut slots in the 4 inch at the middle and top. You will get surface skimming and lower level filtration.
 
On an 8x4x2 foot tank your sump only needs to be about 10L (2.5 US Gal?) if its wet/dry. Think outside the box! (Or inside the tank in this case). Your tank IS the sump so you only need filtration area.

But go with what you know or feel comfortabke with.
 
What I did on my first tank was drill a hole at the center of the tank attach and goop a 3" pipe at the bottom (flashed with the tank bottom floor) and run the pipe downward and to the back of tank and go up again to my desired tank water level. Then I attached a "canal" at the top of the pipe. I got the "canal" from a scrap yard. It is made of alluminum. along the canal I attached 8 - 3" pipes filled with bio balls. Water from teh overflow will be distributed through these pipes with bio balls Then conected all these pipes (with bio balls)at the bottom and divert it to the sump(which is just aplastic bin). These set up worked great for 3 + years with out any problems until I have to dismantle it for my bigger fish tank. The tank is between walls so the back can not be seen.
 
fishdance;1382840; said:
On an 8x4x2 foot tank your sump only needs to be about 10L (2.5 US Gal?) if its wet/dry. Think outside the box! (Or inside the tank in this case). Your tank IS the sump so you only need filtration area.

But go with what you know or feel comfortabke with.
Click to expand...
2.5g's W/D per ~500g's tank volume ??
I have more than that on my 125 now with a "minimal stock list/load.
Got any references on this ?
Seems to me "status quo" to be very minimal, but I, for sure, don't know everything.
 
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