My 600 Gallon Sketch Up...

neoprodigy said:
for a close loop system i will drill the bottom....
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Thats a kick-a$$ design, neo!

The two pipes sitting left and right of centre, those arent the closed loop? Or are they?? What do the hexagonal sections they are running thru represent?

Will this be SW or FW?

EDIT: Nevermind, just had a third look at the pics. Those two pipes are your return/outlets. Sweet.
 
jmhart said:
Question: Why'd you go with two two long pipes going down to the botom of the tank instead of drilling the bottom, or even bottom edge?

I'm considering drilling a 180, and just seeing people thoughts.
Click to expand...

neoprodigy said:
the 2 pipes (far left and right) act like a vacuum... siphon all the poop from the bottom... and going into filter socks.. in the sump.

for a close loop system i will drill the bottom.... deff not for a w/d system.
Click to expand...

You never want to drill at the bottom for a free flowing drain, only for a closed loop. If the return pump were to shut off and the holes were right at the bottom of the tank, the entire tank would continue draining into the sump. With the bulkheads at the top and pipes going down, you get the same vacuum effect right on the bottom, but you use a vented pipe so that if the return pump shuts off, only a little bit of water drains into the sump before the water level gets low enough to not drain out any more.
 
sploke said:
You never want to drill at the bottom for a free flowing drain, only for a closed loop. If the return pump were to shut off and the holes were right at the bottom of the tank, the entire tank would continue draining into the sump. With the bulkheads at the top and pipes going down, you get the same vacuum effect right on the bottom, but you use a vented pipe so that if the return pump shuts off, only a little bit of water drains into the sump before the water level gets low enough to not drain out any more.
Click to expand...



That makes sense. I'm looking at a closed loop system, so that didn't cross my mind.

However, drilling at the bottom could pose a hazard to the auto WC system I'm planning to install. With an overflow or cannister intake type system, if the timer that will be controlling the WC ever fails, only that water that is above the overflow would drain out, but with holes at the bottom, I'd lose all the water(or at least all but a few inches). It'll all be going down a drain, but there's the fish to worry about...

I better be really comfortable with my timer.
 
Not to hijack the thread too far, but

when I design my sump systems, I really strive to not rely on things that could fail, like powerheads to keep overflows primed, timers, check valves, etc. The KISS principle is your friend - the less components you have to fail, the better off you are.

If you drill the bottom only for a closed loop, with no other lines, it should be fine. If nothing else, drill a single bulkhead hole high up on the tank specifically for the auto-topoff.
 
if you drilled the bottom couldn't you use a stand pipe?
 
What program did you use to draw that? It looks so familiar to me but I just can't place the name ....

I use SoftPlan and AutoCad on a daily basis :D It looks like a program that I had on my machine for a brief time.
 
Looks like google Sketchup.
 
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