300 gal room divider wall aquarium update! please comment!

[bethesdaboy]

Re: YIKES!!!! NEED HELP QUICK!!!!! New 300!!!

You can always drill a small hole on the return line as well.
When the power goes out it will suck air and kill the back syphon.

[wesleydnunder]

Re: YIKES!!!! NEED HELP QUICK!!!!! New 300!!!

Peter, you can also drill an anti-syphon hole in the return pipe just under the waterline, so that when the power fails you have a syphon break in the return, allowing minimal water to syphon back into the sump.

edit: bethesda boy posted the same thing as I was writing mine--lol--"great minds" and all that...

Mark

[peterp63]

Re: YIKES!!!! NEED HELP QUICK!!!!! New 300!!!

I will definitely be either drilling a hole or aiming one of the nozzles higher so that the syphon is broken ASAP after the water level begins to drop.  I don't know if this will take care of my problem, but my fingers are crossed.  If this does not take care of the problem then I would like to add additional sump capacity by drilling a hole and connecting a 20 gallon or so.  How difficult is this?  I always wanted to utilize a refugium on my freshwater tank.  This would be perfect! :)

[peterp63]

Re: YIKES!!!! NEED HELP QUICK!!!!! New 300!!!

Okay, I think I've found the problem and it has to do with the return piping!!!  I didn't glue the piping to the fitting that screws into the bulkhead (DUH!!).  I turned off the wet/dry pump and the 2028 and I removed the piping and fitting.  I glued the pieces together and tomorrow morning (5:30 am) I will put teflon tape on the threads and put everything back together.  Right now the return valve from the wet/dry is closed and the water is only about 3/4 high in the sump.  The pump has been off for almost 2 hours now and the level is remaining the same... I think.  That tells me that the return piping was the problem!!!  I will leave everything as is until tomorrow morning and see if a level is built (by then the cement will be cured).  If the level builds some then that tells me the dursos are leaking down to the wet/dry and I'll have to figure something out for that problem.  WISH ME LUCK!!!

Also, does anyone know if the frontosa in my tank is a male or female??  I got it from a fish box member and he said it was a Mpimbwe, but I forgot to ask if it was male or female.  It looks male-ish with the bump on the head, but I thought some female fronts have the bump, too.

[peterp63]

Re: YIKES!!!! NEED HELP QUICK!!!!! New 300!!!

GOOD NEW AND BAD NEWS:

GOOD:  Dursos do not leak into the sump.  The level in the sump stayed the same throughout the night.

BAD:  I put the return piping back together and it's still draining water from the overflow to the wet/dry causing it to overflow in the event of a power failure.  So.... crap.  I glued the PVC to the 1" fitting and that screws into the bulkhead (teflon tape on threads).  I guess the bulkhead is leaking??  Any suggestions?

[Zulaab]

Re: YIKES!!!! NEED HELP QUICK!!!!! New 300!!!

If the pipes are installed and clear of water are you telling us you are still having water coming inside the pipes or externally to the return pipes ??

[peterp63]

Re: YIKES!!!! NEED HELP QUICK!!!!! New 300!!!

Water is going from the overflow to the sump via the return piping/tubing.  I cemented the PVC return pipe to the fitting that screws into the bulkhead and the threads were teflon taped.  I figured this would be sufficient to hold a seal.  I must be wrong...

[txfatcat]

Re: YIKES!!!! NEED HELP QUICK!!!!! New 300!!!

You should be able to see where its leaking from.   Just let it go down until the water levels out.  It will level out where the leak is at. If its at the bulkheads then put more teflon on the drain pipe threads??  Alot of my pipes and tubing are not glued or anything. Mostly pressure fit. Its not high pressure or high volume so. I also have an overflow box on the outside so a little different.  

Adding additional volume is easy.  The problem you will run into it that you will have to raise the height of the wet/dry and move the pump to the sump  unless you put it at the front where the return lines drain into it and then to the wet/dry.  


I have learned from all the fighting with mine that its just so much easier to go with a larger wet/dry. Put the biggest wet dry that will fit under there and then you wont have to worry about flow rates and all that mess contantly.  The more complicated you make it, the more chance you will have for spills, over flows and such.
Mine works great but i made everythign to complex and because of that I have had to re do a bunch of things. My plan is to take a 90g tank and make it into a wet dry and be done. This way you have lots of water and all.

By the way.   very nice looking. I too was also wondering what had happend to this project. Glad to see its comming along good.

[peterp63]

Re: YIKES!!!! NEED HELP QUICK!!!!! New 300!!!

Thanks for the suggestions Chris!  Can you tell if the Mpimbwe in my tank is a male or female?

As for the overflowing sump problem, I think I've figured it out!  I was in a meeting and thought of the problem... everyone probably was wondering why I was smiling in a meeting.  Anyways, I, too, tried to make my plumbing complicated.  I actually tied the sump pump return in with the Eheim 2028 return, so when the power shuts off water flows into the 2028's suction screen and into the "header" and then backwards through the sump pump into the sump.  DUH!!!  I just need to raise up the suction.. plan on doing this tonight after my soccer game.  Thanks for all of the help ALL!!!  I got a bunch more fish last night so I'll be taking more pics.  Will post them soon.

[txfatcat]

Re: YIKES!!!! NEED HELP QUICK!!!!! New 300!!!

As for you fish, try this link

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/frontosa_sexing.php

You should be able to scoop him up and hold him/her in your hands long enough to check. Fronts are pretty slow and can be handled very easily.  Have your wife help you.

[peterp63]

Re: YIKES!!!! NEED HELP QUICK!!!!! New 300!!!

So, my progress on this bad boy has been s l o w.  Once I got everything running and stocked I started other projects and never finished this one.  Still need to build the cabinet doors, drawer fronts, install trim, paint, and build the canopy and lighting.  I must say that it looks pretty good the way it is though....

In the meantime, I plan on redoing my filtration per some suggestions from you boxers.  I am going to remove the Eheim 2260 and replace it with a pool pump that I bought off of craigslist.  I bought a 1 hp pump (3600 gph) AND a pool filter that holds 150 lb of PFS... got a bunch of PVC valves, fittings, pipe, and some pool supplies (nets, chemicals, skimmer, etc., etc.).  All for $100.  Plus, the pool filter comes with a strainer basket on the inlet (more bio filtration or even filter padding to ensure the UGF doesn't get nasty).  Anyways, my plan is to remove the 2260 that is full of activated carbon and connected to my RF UGF and use the pump to circulate the RF UGF.  It's rated for 3600 gph, but that's with 2" inlet/outlet whereas I'll be using 1" inlet/outlets on my aquarium.  I'm hoping this won't burn up the motor or cause any other problems, but will definitely reduce the capacity of this pump which is probably good... but, that's why I'm posting this.  Want to make sure I am not doing anything crazy.  Geoff, mechanically does this sound ok?  I mean we have DMV's that control by closing off on outlets of pumps all over the place.

So, the point is that I will replace the 2260 filled with GAC with a more powerful pump that will ensure a better flow through the 4" crushed coral bed that is intended for biofiltrating my tank.  Plus, I have another tank in need of a big filter anyways.

Next part of this project is to install tees that will allow me to connect 1" hoses to drain my other tanks with this huge pump and discharge the water into an in-ground spinkler system.  Again, kinda got this idea from you boxers.  Now that I am keeping tropheus I know that I need to do a lot of water changing and dumping all of this water down the drain seems like a real waste.  All the while my lawn is getting its butt kicked by the sun.  So, anybody have any suggestions here on this?  I will only be installing inground sprinklers in my front and side yard which is pretty small.  I will either connect the discharge of the pump hardpiped to the system or run a 1" hose each time I drain my tanks (not likely).  The suction will have a connection for a 1" hose similar to Dan's at HAW that will draw water from my other tanks in the house to feed the sprinkler system, as well.  I considered making the sprinkler system able to use both tap and fish water, but the possibility of contaminating my house water or the main supply was too much (even with back flow preventers and double check valves).  Plus, it kinda forces me to do scheduled water changes for the fish.  So, what do you guys think about this.  Shouldn't be too tough, right??

Now, as for the big ole pool filter.  Looks like this with a crazy 6 position valve on top:  http://secure.poolcenter.com/prodinf...LAID=143571580
I plan to use this as my carbon filter for filling my tanks with tap water.  I have a huge 55 lb sack of 4x8 mesh GAC that I bought from Sparkling Clear Industries.  I plan to pour most of the bag into the filter, lay a filter pad on top, and then a layer of PFS or gravel on top of that to keep everything down.  This should last forever and theoretically I shouldn't have to ever add chemicals while doing water changes.... right?  

Man, I thought this was a steal when I saw it on craigslist.... hope it all works out.  Any and all comments will be appreciated!!!

Thanks!!