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Tying into the Basement - Pic Intensive
- Thread starter JohnS_323
- Start date
wow. your setup has given me an inferiority complex in the last five minutes of reading about it. i just finished a basement system for a couple of small tanks with the intention of adding a large tank in the future, but holy crap, i wish i had seen yours first. maybe time for an upgrade of this or that sometime soon. i love the option of splitting your pump and redirecting the excess flow back at the sump. and the direct line to wastewater??? thats awesome. gives me goosebumps.
rryyddeerr said:
Thanks a lot! I've downgraded the system a little over the past year but I still have the direct line into the waste drain. That makes life so convenient. The way the system is now, I can do a 50g water change, moving a total of 150g of water, in less than 5 minutes without doing anything more than flipping a few switches. It's well worth the effort it took to set it up. Good luck if you go for any upgrades and I'd definitely suggest trying to tie into the waste line if at all possible.
That's great! I'm really glad that this is still helpful.
This thread is old but I know people still come to it. In most similar basement setups I find, folks use a single bulkheaded feed to the main pump. In John’s case the dual 2 inch pvc lines are merged to a single 2 inch well before the pump and care is even taken to balance the friction. Does the second bulkhead really provide much value? (My Reeflo Wahoo is base rated at 1550)
Rich, Are you going to run anything else off the pump?.. I'm also doing a basement tie in too but using a reeflo Hammerhead (6000 GPH) and running a few other things off it too
I'm not sure. I can say that it works great the way it is but don't know how it would work with just one bulkhead. The way mine is set up, the pump is never starved for water. That may be the case with a single line but I never tried it.
Oh, thanks for helping out you to. You might not know my plans – I’m moving to a 150 and setting up a basement sump room. I really have a clean slate and I’m trying to figure what will work best for me. Here is what I'm thinking would be fed out of my manifold:
- My current 55g which will become a fuge (low flow)
- I am debating about feeding my skimmer from the return rather than using a dedicated pump for it.
- A phosban reactor that has so little flow it probably doesn't count.
- Possibly more in the future.
I have not bought the Wahoo pump yet but this seemed a good choice being a pressure pump rather than a flow pump and there are closeout deals. The dedicated skimmer pump would have the benefits of skimming water fresh from the display, and fuge life would not pass the skimmer.
As I write I’m thinking you might say go with two pumps since the flow of the Wahoo is much less than John’s pump, you would probably be okay with the single 2” inch feed.
I am very much open to recommendations before I glue anything. The beautiful thing about John’s design is that you can so easily reconfigure by unscrewing a union here or there.
Tomorrow my 55g is going to the basement. Moving that thing has been one of the big reasons I haven’t done this sooner. If you’d like I’ll create a new thread so I don’t clutter John’s story.
Thanks guys,
- My current 55g which will become a fuge (low flow)
- I am debating about feeding my skimmer from the return rather than using a dedicated pump for it.
- A phosban reactor that has so little flow it probably doesn't count.
- Possibly more in the future.
I have not bought the Wahoo pump yet but this seemed a good choice being a pressure pump rather than a flow pump and there are closeout deals. The dedicated skimmer pump would have the benefits of skimming water fresh from the display, and fuge life would not pass the skimmer.
As I write I’m thinking you might say go with two pumps since the flow of the Wahoo is much less than John’s pump, you would probably be okay with the single 2” inch feed.
I am very much open to recommendations before I glue anything. The beautiful thing about John’s design is that you can so easily reconfigure by unscrewing a union here or there.
Tomorrow my 55g is going to the basement. Moving that thing has been one of the big reasons I haven’t done this sooner. If you’d like I’ll create a new thread so I don’t clutter John’s story.
Thanks guys,
Thanks! However, that setup was a long time ago. I have pretty much shut everything down and am just running with the sump and skimmer in the basement. I still have manifold in place and the top off/water change system but all of the side tanks and reactors are gathering dust. When I had everything up and running, my electric bill was insane (from what I hear, you shouldn't have a comma in your monthly bill!). The one saving factor was that most of the system ran off a single pump. Well, I say that but the skimmer had two pumps and the Ca reactor had it's own pump. Plus, all of the lights to run the frag tanks . . . yeah, it was crazy. The strange thing is that even with all of that going on, I never really had a thriving tank. I'm hoping that I start to see better results now that I've stripped it all back. So far it looks promising.
Good luck if you decide to go this route. I can certainly fill you in on what worked and what didn't if you have any specific questions.
Entirely untrue or overly modest!
Thanks James, I appreciate it but when I compare my "success" to some of the other amazing tanks in this club it just doesn't . . .well . . . compare! It could be one of those things like an artist with their paintings, though. You look at it too much and see all of the flaws.
John and Phyl are no long active and have broken down their tank.
He's actually buying my tank. I sent him there to check out the thread. I didn't realize the pics weren't there anymore. Sorry, Dustin! And thanks for trying to help out Paul.
On a mixed emotion note, we filled up the tank to make sure it was still water tight and that everything was ok with it. Once it settled and we turned on the lights, Phyl and I thought "hmmm, maybe we should clean off the rock and start over again...." Damn hobby is so addicting.
On a mixed emotion note, we filled up the tank to make sure it was still water tight and that everything was ok with it. Once it settled and we turned on the lights, Phyl and I thought "hmmm, maybe we should clean off the rock and start over again...." Damn hobby is so addicting.
I vote.....go for it. Before you know it the kids will be gone, and then it's just you a Phyl staring at each other!
LOL. The tank is yours Dustin.
Ya know, Paul, you make a great point! We may get back in to some extent in the future. I will say, though, sizing our solar system to support a 1,000g reef system with a display and 3 frag tanks certainly lends itself to a LOOOOWWWW electric bill when all of that goes away! It's kind of hard to want to go back to a comma in the monthly bill. We'll see. We may go with a Red Sea Max or something that's compact and self contained.
Ya know, Paul, you make a great point! We may get back in to some extent in the future. I will say, though, sizing our solar system to support a 1,000g reef system with a display and 3 frag tanks certainly lends itself to a LOOOOWWWW electric bill when all of that goes away! It's kind of hard to want to go back to a comma in the monthly bill. We'll see. We may go with a Red Sea Max or something that's compact and self contained.