the official 180 build begins !

[gwaco]

Originally Posted by Spanky

I can't follow that without a lot of coffee, and that much coffee would mess me up for the rest of the day.

Here's what I would do.

Use the biggest return pump for the tank/sump/tank loop, and don't use a eductor on it.

Use the most pressure rated pump on the separate UV loop, but use an eductor to make up for the lack of volume.

Get a chiller with a drop in loop so you don't need a pump for it at all.

-or-

Plumb the chiller on the UV loop - after the UV - again less flow but more pressure and make up the difference with an eductor.
What I don't like about that is too many things on one loop - more chances of leaks - and to service the UV you have to turn off the chiller.

In any case, run the skimmer on it's own loop - sump/skimmer/sump - so you have control over it.

do i get a decoder ring with this ? i need valium to figure this out ! chiller with a drop in loop ? i assume you mean the type with the coil that drops into the sump . problem is i already have the chiller and it is a flow thru design , so it will have to work . also for those (eh hemm ! ) that maybe have not read thru the whole thread (which IS MY FAULT since i only pointed someone to one perticular post ) but the sump and all hardware will be in the garage , the only thing that i want in the house is the tank and stand , and a pipe for the drain and one for the returns . i was not going to use a closed loop on this tank but instead will be adding a couple of more tunzes for circulation . now i know the skimmer can take a mak-5 pump and more ,so i was planning on using the l.g. 5.5 on the skimmer loop , but it seems like a waste to only run the skimmer on it as i will probally have to tee or y it anyways to bleed of some of the flow . so i thought i could use some of that on something else . i also don't want anything else in the sump to tank loop , so for that i figured the mak - 4 or 5 . so i guess i'm down to two things that need to be figured in , the chiller and the u.v. ! i could run the u.v. on a loop with the mag-7 but i don't think the mag pump has enough to do the chiller (remember it has to stay on the bench top so thats about four feet of head .

I AM STARTING TO PULL MY HAIR OUT ( no comments please ) THINKING ABOUT THIS !

[gwaco]

o.k. came to another problem . i need to connect two sumps together and looking at what i have i can connect them with two 1 1/2" pipes . will these two flow the amount of either gen-x pumps . so as the tank empties into the first sump and the water is drawn to the second sump will the water flow thru fast enough as to not back up in the first sump and cause the second sump to run out of water ? will this create too much velocity thru the pipes and give me micro bubbles ? OH WHY ,OH WHY DID I START THIS BUILD ?

[gwaco]

sitting thinking again ! another option i have come up with , and least expensive to connect the sumps is to use 2" electrical conduit fittings and sandwich an o- ring in the middle of the two sumps . doing it this way i could put as many as needed . with the thickness of both sumps these fittings would be able to be hand tightened to compress them together and not squeeze the o-ring out .

[Spanky]

I dunno.

There I've said it. I don't know that much about different pumps and plumbing.

I'll just add local color.

[gwaco]

quote by spanky : I dunno.

There I've said it



my whole world has been shattered !

[Viv]

I don't know what your uv is listed for but couldn't you gravity feed to the uv, send to sump, send to skimmer pump, to skimmer, to sump, to chiller pump and chiller to sump to return to tank? Lots of plumbing I guess...I gravity fed my uv and all worked well... just a thought...

[gwaco]

update - spent the last couple of days working on sump 1 set-up . i decided to go ahead and run both the skimmer and chiller off the big pump .

did a test run with them hooked up and everything went well , just a couple of trickle drips . the skimmer runs great on this pump , marked difference between this pump and the mak -5 even with the chiller ! i still have a couple of plumbing changes to make , one being to put a spicket where the last 90 goes into the pump . 1 1/2" pipe holds a good amount of water , this way when i need to do maint. i can completely empty them pump line before disconnecting the unions . so heres what it looks like so far . the pump feed input line is 1 1/2" while the skimmer pipe is 1 1/4" and the feed to the chiller is one inch . i ran the chiller also to check on air flow around it and it seems good . when i started it the water was 87 and within 20 minutes it dropped it to 78 . i know we aren't talkin alot of water volume here but its nice to know it works !

[gwaco]

heres the foam in the skimmer after adding salt . does anyone if i can use table salt for these test ? using the i.o. is going to add up fast ! edit: i still need to put in bigger drains !!!!!!

[gwaco]

these are pics of the foam after a half hour or so . it still managed to find junk to skim out with out me adding anything this time !

[gwaco]

remind anyone of something ?

[gwaco]

Originally Posted by Viv

I don't know what your uv is listed for but couldn't you gravity feed to the uv, send to sump, send to skimmer pump, to skimmer, to sump, to chiller pump and chiller to sump to return to tank? Lots of plumbing I guess...I gravity fed my uv and all worked well... just a thought...

i actually gravity feed my u.v. on the current 75 set-up .this has also worked out for me . i had thought about gravity feeding it of the chiller return and then it hit me ! why would i want to heat up the water right after i chilled it . didn't make sense so i think i will just go ahead and run it with the mag -7 . so i am pretty content at running the skimmer and chiller off one pump and using the mak -4 for the sump to tank , the mag -7 for the skimmer and using the mak-5 as a stand-by pump .

[gman0526]

That skimmer is working like a charm, just wait until it has crap to take out

[Viv]

So what's the matter with warming up the water after you just chilled it! I would have had the whole thing hooked up before finding that out!! Sorry, and glad you thought it out first-really didn't see that! Agree with gman-skimmer looks awesome!

[REEF-DADDY]

I really think you would be happier with the skimmer on its own pump. You'll have to shut down the chiller every time you want to turn off the skimmer. Not to mention the performance of a Beckett skimmer is proportionate to the pump you’re using. I doubt your pump is making much pressure being split like that. I would run the chiller and UV on one loop. UV then chiller ,you prolly could get away with a mag 9 or an iwaki 40 or the like

[Wiskey]

The skimmer looks great! Be sure to keep us updated.

Thanks,
Whiskey